According to a Wall Street Journal report, ex-convicts might see their voting rights restored, thanks to a planned move to reform outdated US state laws. The report said that the Obama administration and conservative lawmakers in the US Congress has teamed up to award voting rights to millions of ex-convicts back. Ex-convicts are reportedly stripped of their voting rights due to their criminal records.
Attorney General Eric Holder had said that the current laws in 11 states were racially unfair, counterproductive and outdated. One example Holder brought up was a law in Florida wherein one of every 10 people is prevented from casting ballots. Holden also added that the scope of the felons' disenfranchisement in the country was too unjust and too significant not to be ignored.
Holden's call for voting rights change is part of the current administration's broad efforts to reform criminal sentencing.
Holder told audience in his speech at an event of the law school of Georgetown University that despite the fact that there's little he could do to change certain state laws, he's not suggesting any federal rewards or punishments to influence lawmakers to change the current legislation.
Two Tea Party lawmakers, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, seconded Holder's remarks and expressed also at the same event that issues of prisoner rehabilitation and sentence reform are about the protection of family values.
WSJ said that the unusual alliance of the three was a vivid example of how politicians have shifted their views on crime to address the ballooning population in prisons across the country.
"Now, budget-conscious conservatives are advocating less punishment for nonviolent offenders as a means of reducing government spending on prisons. And they are finding agreement from Democrats who complain drug sentences unfairly punish African-American and other minority groups," the report wrote.
