Thursday, May 01, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Local View: Nevada: Where voting is a crime

By Paul Brown and Liz Moore

Nevada, a state in which a handful of votes routinely decides elections for state Assembly and Senate and the U.S. Senate (just ask "Landslide Harry"), bars more than 44,000 adults from voting.

What was their crime? It varies, but it was a felony. Nevada is one of only 13 states that forbid felons from voting, even after they've completed their entire sentences. This is wrong. Once felons have paid their debt, they should be allowed to fully re-integrate into society, and that means they should be allowed to vote.

Unfortunately, Nevada seems to want to punish ex-offenders forever. The advocacy group Demos gave Nevada an "F" grade in its 2002 report "Restoring Voting Rights to Citizens with Felony Convictions." Demos stated that Nevada "effectively takes away the vote for life from all citizens with felony convictions." Demos ranked Nevada with Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Tennessee. Those states' disenfranchisement laws date from the post-Civil War years when the Jim Crow structures of legal segregation were established. (Side note: Aren't these the same states that significantly underfund education, just like Nevada?)

Nevada's ex-felon voting laws shaft people of color. One in four African-Americans in Nevada older than 25 is a former felon. Many became felons with a little help from Nevada's systemic racial profiling, which was documented by the Legislature's recent study of traffic stop data. The study showed that African-Americans are stopped at twice their percentage of the general population and are more likely to be handcuffed, searched and arrested than whites (despite data showing whites are more likely to be carrying illegal items). The study also showed that Latinos are targets of racial profiling.

Since Nevada goes out of its way to jail people of color, communities of color are being systematically silenced at the ballot box. Jim Crow would be proud.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani is not proud of our current voting laws. And she ain't just whistling Dixie. She is doing something about it. She is sponsoring a bill to restore voting rights to ex-felons. Assembly Bill 337 would make all felons automatically eligible to register to vote after they've completed their sentences. This bill eliminates the bureaucratic bungling that currently keeps ex-felons from regaining their voting rights.

In a recent poll, 80 percent of Americans said all ex-felons who've completed their sentences should have the right to vote. Okay, that translates to about 40 percent of Nevadans--only about half of us are paying attention--but still that's a sizeable number. That same Harris Poll found that 60 percent of Americans believe citizens on parole or probation should have the right to vote.

At the Nevada Legislature, some lawmakers are worried that AB337 will allow ex-felons to sit on juries. These lawmakers are needlessly upset. Our guess is these are the same lawmakers who've managed to weasel out of jury duty. If they had served, they would know that lawyers in criminal cases ask potential jurors a series of questions, such as "Have you ever been a victim of a crime?" and "Have you ever committed a crime?" And if the potential juror says yes, they 86 'em.

Giunchigliani's bill also addresses work issues. In Nevada, ex-felons' access to living wage jobs is also systematically restricted. Ex-felons are barred from about two dozen licensed professions in Nevada, including veterinary medicine, mortgage brokering and landscape architecture. Leave it to the state of Nevada to protect us from felonious landscapers. You wouldn't want an ex-felon spreading manure on your lawn, would you?

Tens of thousands of Nevadans are barred from voting because of felony convictions (and we don't even have a Bush brother for governor). This undermines democracy. And with Nevada's dismal voter turnout history, we need all the voters we can get. Denying the right to vote is criminal.

So, contact your state senators at 486-2626 (the bill has already passed the Assembly) and tell them to support AB337. If you'd like to download a postcard in support of ex-felon voting rights, go to www.planevada.org.

Paul Brown is Southern Nevada director and Liz Moore is Southern Nevada coordinator of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.