Nearly six million American citizens are unable to vote due to a past criminal conviction . More than 2 percent of the adult populationis banned from voting because of a felony conviction .(nytimes.com) Convicted felons should be able to vote after they have served their time in jail because they have paid their debt to society, and everyone makes mistakes which makes no one perfect . There is a lot downhill that is going on and a violation of human rights is occurring in the United States today towards felons, and has been for many years despite no constitutional precedent for it (ProCon .org). The number of Americans who cannot vote because they have been convicted of a felon rapidly increases as the years pass on. One fourth of the people still reside in prison but the other three-forth = have completed their sentence or are on probation or parole. The reason why the United States would not like them to vote is continue punishing them. Former offenders who are allowed to vote are less likely to return to prison and more likely to become reintegrated into their communities because of the simple fact they know their rights are very limited. The number of blacks among the disenfranchised remains a huge racial justice problem.(The New York Times)
"We let ex-convicts marry, reproduce, buy beer, own property and drive. They don't lose their freedom of religion, their right against self-incrimination or their right not to have soldiers quartered in their homes in time of war. But in many places, the assumption is that they can't be trusted to help choose our leaders. If we thought criminals could never be reformed, we wouldn't let them out of prison in the first place." (ProCon.org) Also, lots of arguments can be made that limiting the right to vote harms the societyas a whole . For example, telling individuals who live on the margins of society that they are not real citizens digs underneath their