McComb Enterprise-Journal

Courts nix Miss. felons’ votes

Posted: 10/27/08 - 12:06:21 pm CDT

JACKSON (AP) — An attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union says it’s unlikely that at least 146,000 convicted felons in Mississippi will be allowed to vote in the Nov. 4 presidential election.

The ACLU concedes that Mississippi law prevents people convicted of certain felonies from voting in most Mississippi and federal elections. However, the ACLU claims in a federal lawsuit filed in September, that there’s an exception in the Mississippi constitution that allows people with felony convictions to vote in the presidential elections. The state says that’s a misinterpretation.

“These folks probably won’t be allowed to vote in November unless the district court issues a favorable ruling in the next week — highly unlikely,” said Nancy Abudu, a lawyer with the ACLU Voting Rights Project.

Mississippians convicted of 21 types of crimes are prohibited from voting, ranging from murder and rape to bribery and bigamy.

U.S. District Judge Tom Lee refused last month to issue a preliminary injunction that would have forced Mississippi officials to allow felons to vote for president.

Lee said the ACLU is “not likely to succeed on the merits of their claims,” but he did not dismiss the lawsuit itself. The ACLU appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which declined last week to issue a similar emergency injunction.

A motion filed by the secretary of state’s office to dismiss the lawsuit is pending.

Pam Weaver, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, said only that Lee had ruled against the injunction and, “Therefore, disenfranchised felons will not be able to vote in the 2008 general election.”

If convicted felons in Mississippi were allowed to vote this year it would likely benefit Democratic Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, Abudu said.

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Let us know what you think about this story or topic.

Common Sense wrote on Oct 28, 2008 10:34 AM:

" Thats because most of them are ignorant enough to vote for Obama. "

Misleading Title wrote on Oct 27, 2008 5:21 PM:

" The title of this article is so misleading, also the language in the article is so broad it would have one to believe that all convicted felons have been disenfranchised by this decision; That's not the case. The state constituion does not disenfranchise anyone convicted of a drug charge, aggrevated assault, manslaughter and others. It seems as if the writer of this article intentionally meant to mislead or disencourage this population of voters. "

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