Voting Rights for Convicted Criminals? Controversy Brewing in California
By: Steve Grumm
The nonpartisan League of Women Voters and two groups for prisoners’ rights have filed a lawsuit in a San Francisco appeals court, arguing that criminals should allowed to vote in the June primary election. The lawsuit challenges a note from Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s office that says low-level criminals shifted from state prison to county jail under the state’s prison realignment process are ineligible to vote.
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Backers of the lawsuit say the state constitution only prohibits individuals who are in prison or on parole for the “conviction of a felony” from voting, and they claim that does not fit for low-level offenders under the realignment.