Criminal Justice & Political Science Masters Papers

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Voter Disenfranchisement
(North Dakota State University, 2010) Peterson, Timothy Walter
This paper examines the policy of voter disenfranchisement and how it disproportionately affects minorities. Voter disenfranchisement is the denial of voting rights to the criminally convicted. The research indicates African Americans are significantly disproportionally affected by this policy when compared to white Americans. Currently, the United States Supreme Court has allowed states to incorporate their own policy for disenfranchising felons residing in their state. The recommendation of this paper is to create a uniform policy for voter disenfranchisement among the fifty states, which would allow for any eligible voter living in the community to vote. The policy would only deny voting to those that are incarcerated. This recommendation is based on the belief that voting is a fundamental right and that the current policy disproportionately affects minorities. Also, implementation of this policy would be cost effective for states because tracking disenfranchised community members would no longer be needed. 111