The Real Reason Why The Government Disenfranchises Felons

Note: This story originally appeared on my blog (in slightly different form) on October 22, 2015.

For all the recent discussion about voter disenfranchisement, the one sub-topic that is consistently overlooked is the (sometimes permanent) disenfranchisement of convicted felons. As of this writing, many states only restore voting rights after a petition process, a process that often is (and may be intentionally) onerous. Many other states forbid people on parole from voting as well. Only two states, Maine and Vermont, place no restrictions on otherwise eligible voters; in fact, these two states allow people to vote while incarcerated.

There are currently 2.2 million people serving time in prison. And at the end of 2013, there were nearly five million Americans on probation or parole — a grand total of more than seven million people.

Let’s put these numbers into perspective. New York City has a population of 8.4 million people. Seven million is approximately all the people in the “outer boroughs” of the city.

Need more perspective? The combined population of Los Angeles and Chicago comes to a little more than six-and-a-half million.

Need even more perspective? The entire population of Ireland — the Republic and the British North — is only about…