Chris Hedges: Many US Citizens Are Currently Denied The Right To Vote Due To State Laws That Disenfranchise Citizens Who Have Been Convicted Of A Felony

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the video below

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Feb 9, 2019

More than 6 million United States citizens are currently denied the right to vote due to state laws that disenfranchise citizens who have been convicted of a felony. More than 75 percent of these disenfranchised citizens are not in prison, and more than half have completed all terms of parole and probation.

The US is unique in the civil consequences it applies to its criminal population, almost certainly the only country in the world that disenfranchises a significant number of people who are either no longer incarcerated or were never in prison at all. Activists and advocates though are fighting back by reforming state laws.

Ron Pierce, a Democracy and Justice Fellow at the New Jersey Institute of Social Justice, who was formerly incarcerated, and Scott Novakowski, the Associate Counsel at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, joined Chris Hedges to talk about the fight they are leading to repeal voting disenfranchisement in the state of New Jersey.

From the archives:

A Revolution of Democracy

Beyond Voting by Howard Zinn + What Else You Can Do: 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action by David Swanson

Elections and Politics are the Games of Elites

The Biggest Political Delusion Of All Is In The U.S. Electoral Politics Itself by Paul Street + Nobody to Vote For by David Swanson + Politicians Robbing Us Blind

Universal Voting VS Voter Suppression by Ralph Nader

The USA: The Human Rights and Civil Rights Hypocrite by Paul Street

Abby Martin and Greg Palast: The Hidden Purging of Millions of Voters

Who Voted and Who Couldn’t–Don’t Blame Jill Stein by Drew Robert Winter

The Scandal of Voter Suppression by William John Cox + 16 States Face New Voting Restrictions