Felon Disenfranchisement

History

Disenfranchisement provisions have existed since the founding of the United States. Throughout earlier periods in American history, the right to vote was seen as a privilege that only some people deserved. It was not extended to groups such as women, Catholics, the illiterate, and the poor. Supporters of limited suffrage argued that class and social standing should be important determinants of political status. Others asserted that individuals who broke the social contract did not deserve to enjoy the full rights of citizenship, for example, voting. Therefore, legislators viewed criminal disenfranchisement laws as a means of both protecting the ballot box and promoting the community's interests.

Between 1776 and 1821, 11 states adopted provisions that denied the vote to convicted felons: Virginia (1776), Kentucky (1799), Ohio (1802), New Jersey (1807), Louisiana (1812), Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Connecticut (1818), Alabama (1819), Missouri (1820), and New York (1821). The original justifications for these statutes were based on the dual concepts of deterrence and retribution. However, the end of the 19th century marked an important era for the expansion and strict enforcement of criminal disenfranchisement laws. After several constitutional amendments increased blacks' access to the political process, Southern white opposition soared. In response, most states tailored their statutes during the postReconstruction era to enhance their impact on African Americans. These news plans penalized blacks without any explicit reference to blacks as a racial group. As a result of this subtlety, states were protected from legal challenges. In particular, they were able to uphold the 15th Amendment's ban on [Page 319]overtly racial policies while still promoting their interests.

Mississippi's plan set the standard for states interested in altering their disenfranchisement provisions. The state's 1869 constitution required disenfranchisement of citizens convicted of any crime. However, its 1890 constitution imposed disenfranchisement for a very narrow list of crimes such as bigamy, theft, and burglary. In particular, the disenfranchising crimes were based on those crimes that blacks were believed to commit more frequently, and excluded crimes that whites were believed to commit more frequently.

Realizing the effectiveness of Mississippi's plan, from 1891 to 1910 eleven other states—Louisiana (1898), Virginia (1902), Alabama (1901), North Carolina (1900), Georgia (1908), South Carolina (1895), Tennessee (1891), Florida (1889), Texas (1902), Arkansas (1893), and Oklahoma—adopted similar criminal disenfranchisement policies. The impact of these new statutes, in conjunction with the long-standing tools of poll taxes, literacy tests, violence, and intimidation, significantly reduced the eligible black electorate. For example, in 1897 Louisiana had more than 130,000 African Americans registered to vote, representing nearly 44% of the electorate. After the adoption of disenfranchisement provisions at the 1898 constitutional convention, the number of African Americans registered to vote plummeted to 5,320. In 1904, that number fell to 1,342.

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