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Log inVoter drive registers more than 200 inmates
Voter drive registers more than 200 inmates
by Outspoken on Thu May 22, 2008 5:03 am
Voter drive registers more than 200 inmates
Party representatives meet with prisoners during the first effort of its kind at the Maine State Prison.
By DENNIS HOEY
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
WARREN — The get-out-the-vote effort in Maine broke new ground Wednesday when more than 200 inmates in the Maine State Prison registered to cast ballots.
Prison officials said it was the first prisoner education and registration drive held at the facility.
Deputy Warden Leida Dardis said the event, which was organized by Maine chapters of the NAACP, allowed representatives from the state Democratic, Republican and Green Independent parties to meet with prisoners in morning and afternoon informational sessions.
Maine and Vermont are the only states that give people convicted of felonies the right to vote while in prison.
Some states bar felons from voting even while on probation or parole; others prevent them from ever voting.
During each election season, Maine prison officials make inmates aware of their voting rights, but Dardis said this was the first time such a concerted registration effort has been made inside the 7-year-old prison.
"Politics is a way of keeping prisoners connected with society," said one inmate, Joseph N. Jackson, 42, of Lewiston. "The reason that many guys are here is they never felt connected to society in the first place."
Jackson, who is serving time for manslaughter, is vice president of the prison's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter and a registered Democrat.
Inmates who qualify to vote must cast absentee ballots in the city or town where they last lived.
There are no guarantees that inmates who registered on Wednesday will have their applications approved. Each application must be reviewed by the Secretary of State's Office and municipal clerks before ballots are cast.
State Rep. Stephen P. Hanley, D-Gardiner, sponsored a bill that proposed amending the state Constitution to prohibit anyone who is convicted of murder or another Class A or B felony from voting while in prison.
The bill never made it out of committee.
Hanley said his bill targeted those who are convicted of the most violent crimes. The right to vote would have been restored after release from prison, but anyone serving a life sentence would never vote again.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=189316&ac=PHnws
Photos by Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer
Party representatives meet with prisoners during the first effort of its kind at the Maine State Prison.
By DENNIS HOEY
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
WARREN — The get-out-the-vote effort in Maine broke new ground Wednesday when more than 200 inmates in the Maine State Prison registered to cast ballots.
Prison officials said it was the first prisoner education and registration drive held at the facility.
Deputy Warden Leida Dardis said the event, which was organized by Maine chapters of the NAACP, allowed representatives from the state Democratic, Republican and Green Independent parties to meet with prisoners in morning and afternoon informational sessions.
Maine and Vermont are the only states that give people convicted of felonies the right to vote while in prison.
Some states bar felons from voting even while on probation or parole; others prevent them from ever voting.
During each election season, Maine prison officials make inmates aware of their voting rights, but Dardis said this was the first time such a concerted registration effort has been made inside the 7-year-old prison.
"Politics is a way of keeping prisoners connected with society," said one inmate, Joseph N. Jackson, 42, of Lewiston. "The reason that many guys are here is they never felt connected to society in the first place."
Jackson, who is serving time for manslaughter, is vice president of the prison's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter and a registered Democrat.
Inmates who qualify to vote must cast absentee ballots in the city or town where they last lived.
There are no guarantees that inmates who registered on Wednesday will have their applications approved. Each application must be reviewed by the Secretary of State's Office and municipal clerks before ballots are cast.
State Rep. Stephen P. Hanley, D-Gardiner, sponsored a bill that proposed amending the state Constitution to prohibit anyone who is convicted of murder or another Class A or B felony from voting while in prison.
The bill never made it out of committee.
Hanley said his bill targeted those who are convicted of the most violent crimes. The right to vote would have been restored after release from prison, but anyone serving a life sentence would never vote again.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=189316&ac=PHnws
Photos by Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer
"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'."
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996)
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996)
