Someone correct me if I'm wrong about this, but just because a person commits a felon does not mean they cannot vote. I'm rather certain this is a State by State issue. In some states felons can vote. In others they cannot. I sort of remember felons released from the Ewetaw Sate Penitentiary still had their right to vote restored. Am I wrong? At 59 years-old I'm always willing to learn new things.
I base the previous belief on the fact that I knew at least one mormon (among a cadre of five) who were convicted for investment fraud. He was my parent's neighbor and when he was let out of prison I remember him standing in line to vote at the Polls in 'Mericuhn Fark, Ewetaw. Maybe he was just "special"?
Anyone really know the answer to this?
It's by the state. I refuse to pay some of my dept of corrections fines, and until I do, I cannot regain the right to vote, because at least in washington State, nonviolent felonies can be expunged after 5 years, but violent can never be expunged. I personally don't see my right to vote as worth giving money I don't believe I owe to the State, since voting is rigged anyways. (People like LBJ readily admitted it, and the Gregoire/Rossi squeaker in Wa State confirmed it for me. Rigged votes are almost always close.)
Also, IIRC, Florida does not allow felons to vote, and in 2000, it also rejected people with the same names as felons.
Funny, durign the Rossi/Gregoire squeaker, felons voted (illegally) 4 to 1 for Rossi, the republican. My experience in Jail says, yup. Believe it or not, msot crooks I met were red white and blue die hard conservative Americans, that believed we should be tougher on criminals and all that. Crazy, but true.