On August 6, the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, dozens of Baltimore residents gathered in protest of Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s veto of the felony disenfranchisement reform bill. The bill would have restored voting rights to about 40,000 Marylanders on probation or parole. Organizers urged the crowd to gather and demonstrate during the next legislative session, when they hope to push for an override of Hogan’s veto.
Since 1997, 23 states have modified felony disenfranchisement provisions to expand voter eligibility. This year, eighteen states considered loosening voting restrictions on people with past felony convictions, The American Prospect reports.
The Sentencing Project estimates that nearly 800,000 citizens have regained the right to vote through voting reforms enacted between 1997 and 2010. Last month, President Obama even said that, “If folks have served their time, and they’ve re-entered society, they should be able to vote.”
Read the full article at The American Prospect.
