Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

On Wednesday morning the New York Civil Liberties Union held a press conference to launch their campaign to help ex-felons restore their right to vote. The campaign includes bus ads in NYC, train ads in Syracuse and Buffalo, and public service ads on the radio throughout the state.

The NYCLU reiterated the fact that 5.3 million Americans are disenfranchised due to a felony conviction.

Well theoretically speaking, if a large enough percentage of those disenfranchised voters were able to register before the November election, would they be able to sway the presidential race one way or another?

Turns out there are people actually worried about this.

Back in June, in Virginia, one of two states where felons automatically lose voting rights for life, the Governor pushed to add nonviolent offenders to voter registration lists. This angered the state’s Republicans, like Del. C. Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah), who said that the Governor’s plan was an effort designed to support Obama. Gilbert also said, “I don’ t know a lot of young Republicans who end up being felons.”

In the 2000 presidential election, Florida removed any names from voter registration lists that were similar to names in a nationwide database. In 2004, the New York Times reported that the list was racially biased:

“Of nearly 48,000 Florida residents on the felon list, only 61 are Hispanic. By contrast, more than 22,000 are African-American.”

This was significant in Florida, where blacks overwhelmingly voted Democratic in the 2000 election, and Hispanics voted Republican.

Was Florida seriously worried all of the black ex-felons were going to swing the 2004 presidential race?

Anyone who thinks that the push to register ex-felons is to vote in support of a particular party needs to rethink this idea. It’s really ludicrous. What candidate is actually going to rely on that demographic to win the election? America doesn’t have a high voter turn out in the first place, and it is highly doubtful that this group was voters before they served prison time. It’s even more doubtful that they can be relied on to carry the percentage of the vote a certain way after they are released from prison.

And while I know this isn’t what the NYCLU is trying to do with their new campaign…it’s about civil rights and citizenship, not partisanship…it’s still a little comical to think about how many ex-felons will be sitting on the bus, see these ads, and rush to go vote in November.