Georgia strips voting rights from people convicted of all felonies, from murder to drug possession, even though a straightforward reading of the law suggests not all felons deserve such punishment. So did Florida until voters last year approved a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to those who serve their time. The debate in Georgia has all but ignored the voting rights of felons, even as the issue has gained traction nationally. Georgia law prohibits voting by anyone convicted of a “felony involving moral turpitude,” a legal phrase rooted in the state’s Reconstruction-era constitution of 1877. The ACLU’s Young said it’s significant that neither case dealt with felons’ voting rights because “the same words can have different meaning in a different context.”Others have questioned whether Georgia is right to prohibit all felons from voting.

Source: National Post May 28, 2019 15:10 UTC