(Thanks to ravager for originally posting a CNN article that triggered this response.)

November 1995. Tel Aviv, Israel. It's a Saturday evening downtown, and many Israelis are squeezed in a town square for a peace rally. The stakes of lives being lost has been too much for many people, and they have expressed their desires to a peaceful end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is there, singing along with everyone Shir L'Shalom, an Israeli standard, translated to "the song for peace."

Moments later, Yigal Amir, an observant Jew and a third-year law student, takes out a gun and shoots the Prime Minister, killing him. He's now serving a life sentence for murder in Israel.

There have been lengthy debates about Yigal Amir's rights as a convicted felon. Is he allowed to marry while serving his sentence? How much communication does he deserve with the outside world? Can he spend the Jewish holidays with family? But there's one right that he has which is undisputed: Yigal Amir, although a convicted criminal serving time, can vote in Israeli national elections.

Why does he get to vote? Because he's an Israeli citizen. And voting is a fundamental right of all Israeli citizens of voting age.

Not so in the USA. In the states of Maine and Vermont, citizens in jail can vote. In the rest of the USA, the voting rights are taken away. I'm not a big fan of this, but I can understand where it's coming from. However, in thirty-three states, even those not in jail but out on parole or probation are not allowed to vote. And in thirteen states, once you're convicted once, your voting rights are taken away -- sometimes for life.

So much for "paying one's debt to society..."

One of the states getting media attention is Florida, where Governor Jed Bush has requested that another 47,000 names be purged from the voter rolls in that state. These are the names of convicted felons who, although they may have served their sentences, are not permitted to vote. This hasn't been much of an issue from the 1960s until 2000 -- in fact, some folks were allowed to vote after a conviction in the 1950s and after being completely rehabilitated. Then, in 2000, a roadblock hit many -- and they were told that due to their status, they were not allowed to vote.

And there are also those on that list who may be on there in error -- perhaps they share a name with someone who was convicted of a crime back in 1965. Bureaucracy has been known to make a mistake or two...

Of course you can appeal the process and try to get your name back on the list of eligible voters. But that can take up to two years. If you're notified now that you're unable to vote in the next election, you can't appeal in time. Some people have been waiting for months without even an acknowledgement that the request has been made.

From yesterday's Washington Post editorial: "An estimated 1.7 million ex-felons nationwide were disenfranchised in 2000, according to the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit criminal justice organization." Another staggering statistic from the same article: "These laws are a vestige of a time when states sought to discourage blacks from voting, and they do, in fact, disproportionately disenfranchise African Americans. Eight percent of blacks in Maryland are deprived of the vote; in Virginia and Florida, a staggering 16 percent of the black population is disenfranchised."

Again, this law has been on the books for a while, but it has slid for quite a while in Florida until the 2000 election. At that time, Governor Bush kicked it into effect, disenfranchising many -- mostly African-Americans who were less likely to vote Republican. And the same thing is happening this year before the presidential election. Convenient way of taking away potential votes against Bush, isn't it?

Can anyone tell me why ex-felons should not be able to vote? They pay taxes. (Or, if they don't, it doesn't preclude other tax-evaders who were not convicted.) They've paid their debts to society as per our justice system. They've been rehabilitated to a point where they've been allowed to re-enter society.

Where did their rights go?

(Another intriguing article if you're interested -- from the American Bar Association -- http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/winter04/felon.html.)