Disenfranchisement Should Be Abolished Essay

Recently in the United States, following the November elections social media has been abuzz with the problems of voting in the country. The news has heavily featured stories of failures of the system. All the stories focus on the troubles of the electoral college, or Russian hacking in the system, but almost no stories focus on the problem facing millions of citizens that would otherwise be able to vote. This problem is felon disenfranchisement, millions of felons not being able to vote. The laws that take the right to vote away from felons in the United States should be repealed. In 2012, felon disenfranchisement laws in The United States caused an estimated 5.85 million felons from being able to vote. This has a large affect on the elections

The government over the years has granted suffrage to all other citizens over the age of eighteen, regardless of who they are. The purpose of voting is to have a say in how the government is run, and this is one of the core principles of the United States. When the first line of the Federal Constitution starts with “We the people of the Untied States of America,” then that should mean all of the people, and not just people who have not made a mistake. The felons are still required to abide by all of the laws that would apply to anyone else, but do not get the right to be able to change those laws, or the people making them. This is not a fair way to treat the citizens of the country. Taxation without representation was one of the factors leading to the independence of the nation. People thought it was unfair that they did not get any say in how much they were taxed, and how they were treated and this is the same reason that suffrage was given to women and African Americans. Why should this not apply to felons as well. This loss of representation is compounded by the fact that a disproportionate number of African Americans are disenfranchised by these