Thousands of Alabama felons register to vote in last-minute push

[SirLinksALot]

SOURCE: AL.COM

URL: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/11/advocates_make_last-minute_pus.html#incart_river_mobileshort_home

by Connor Sheets


Thousands of felons across Alabama have registered to vote in recent weeks, according to Pastor Kenneth Glasgow, who is heading up a statewide effort to get felons to the voting booth.

Glasgow's goal is to get as many felons as possible signed up to vote before the end of the day Monday, the deadline to be able to cast a ballot in Alabama's Dec. 12 U.S. Senate special election.

"In the last month, I think we registered at least five- to ten-thousand people all over the state," Glasgow, president of Dothan's The Ordinary People Society (TOPS) advocacy group, said Monday. "I've got people all over the state registering people with my TOPS branches in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Montgomery, Enterprise, Dothan, Abbeville, Geneva, Gordon, Bessemer, we have a lot."

For generations, most Alabamians convicted of a felony were barred from ever voting in the state again, but the Definition of Moral Turpitude Act, a new law passed by the state Legislature and signed by Gov. Kay Ivey in May, cleared the way for thousands of felons to restore their voting rights.

The law lists several dozen felony convictions that are considered crimes "of moral turpitude," which means that anyone convicted of one of them loses the right to vote; other felons are now eligible to restore that right. Previously, the list of crimes that some registrars considered to be "of moral turpitude" was not clearly defined, and many felons simply believed they could never regain the franchise.

(EXCERPT) CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST...

[SirLinksALot]

Pastor Kenneth Glasgow helps Dothan City Jail inmate Spencer Trawick fill out a voter registration form inside the jail in June.

[SirLinksALot]

Hmmmm... Guess who these new registrants will be voting for.... that, and the third party candidacy of Marine Col. Lee Busby could tip the scales?

[DiogenesLamp]

And once again,  the 24th amendment bites us in the @$$.   

[Emjay]

Hmmmm... Guess who these new registrants will be voting for.... that, and the third party candidacy of Marine Col. Lee Busby could tip the scales?

Why are felons being allowed to vote?

[Millee]

Wonder how much Soros is paying them? 

[DiogenesLamp]

Why are felons being allowed to vote?

I think there is a better argument for restoring their gun rights than their voting rights. 

[RetBobbyMI]

I'd bet that the mere registration in itself doesn't restore. It likely still takes legal action to absolve the previous conviction order.

[Emjay]

Wonder how much Soros is paying them? 

Hasn't hell waited long enough for Soros?

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

Hasn't hell waited long enough for Soros?

Take solace in the knowledge that Charlie Manson will be there at the gates, waiting for him when he arrives, with Seniority.

[Smokin Joe]

Why are felons being allowed to vote?

At one time, sot so long ago, those convicted of the crimes of sodomy or homosexuality were excluded from voting. While seldom mentioned in issues such as this, the LGBTQxyzetc aspect always seems to be lurking in the shadows.

(A). Contrast Finley v. State, 661 So. 2d 762 (Ala. Crim. App. 1995) — which held that felony DUI does not involve moral turpitude – with Jarrard v. Clayton County Board of Registrars, 262 Ga. 759, 425 S.E.2d 874 (1993), where the Georgia Supreme Court found that multiple convictions of felony DUI would render the crime to be one involving moral turpitude. If the distinction is explained by the number of convictions, how many are needed to transmogrify the crime into one of moral turpitude?

(B). The crime of moral turpitude in Williams v. State, quoted above, was sodomy. TheCourt of Criminal Appeals concluded there that homosexual conduct, even if consensual, was a crime involving moral turpitude, characterizing the offense “as abominable, detestable, unmentionable, and too disgusting and well known to require other definition or further details or description.” 316 So.2d at 365. Today, while “deviate sexual intercourse” — defined in Ala. Code §13A-6-60 – is still illegal, it is now only a misdemeanor under Ala. Code§13A-6-65(a)(3). Under changing societal standards, it would no longer serve as the basis of disqualification under the language of Section 177(b) of the Alabama Constitution.

https://alablawg.wordpress.com/2006/08/31/alabama-felons-moral-turpitude-and-voting-part-2/

Interestingly enough, this would involve any crime which is sexual in nature.

The original section of the Alabama Constitution of 1901:

SECTION 182

Certain persons disqualified from registering and voting.

The following persons shall be disqualified both from registering, and from voting, namely:

All idiots and insane persons; those who shall by reason of conviction of crime be disqualified from voting at the time of the ratification of this Constitution; those who shall be convicted of treason, murder, arson, embezzlement, malfeasance in office, larceny, receiving stolen property, obtaining property or money under false pretenses, perjury, subornation of perjury, robbery, assault with intent to rob, burglary, forgery, bribery, assault and battery on the wife, bigamy, living in adultery, sodomy, incest, rape, miscegenation, crime against nature, or any crime punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, or of any infamous crime or crime involving moral turpitude; also, any person who shall be convicted as a vagrant or tramp, or of selling or offering to sell his vote or the vote of another, or of buying or offering to buy the vote of another, or of making or offering to make a false return in any election by the people or in any primary election to procure the nomination or election of any person to any office, or of suborning any witness or registrar to secure the registration of any person as an elector.

So the list involving "crimes of moral turpitude" wasn't so vague at one time.

[WingNot]

those who shall be convicted of treason, murder, arson, embezzlement, malfeasance in office, larceny, receiving stolen property, obtaining property or money under false pretenses, perjury, subornation of perjury, robbery, assault with intent to rob, burglary, forgery, bribery, assault and battery on the wife, bigamy, living in adultery, sodomy, incest, rape, miscegenation, crime against nature, or any crime punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, or of any infamous crime or crime involving moral turpitude; also, any person who shall be convicted as a vagrant or tramp,

They forgot

rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists.

[Smokin Joe]

They forgot

rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists.

I thought that "or of any infamous crime or crime involving moral turpitude" purt'near covered all that (and 'sodomy' was included by name).

[Victoria33]

I'd bet that the mere registration in itself doesn't restore. It likely still takes legal action to absolve the previous conviction order.

@RetBobbyMI

I was working in Texas politics when this changed in Texas.  Until this changed, they could never vote again if convicted of a felony.  Now, once a convicted person has served his time, his voting rights are reinstated even if he is now on parole.

These are Texas STATE convictions - not federal as they have their own rules.

[RetBobbyMI]

@RetBobbyMI

I was working in Texas politics when this changed in Texas.  Until this changed, they could never vote again if convicted of a felony.  Now, once a convicted person has served his time, his voting rights are reinstated even if he is now on parole.

These are Texas STATE convictions - not federal as they have their own rules.

Too many left wing libtards flooding into Texas diluting conservative traditions of the great state.

[TomSea]

Too many left wing libtards flooding into Texas diluting conservative traditions of the great state.

It became a minority-majority state in 2005; what can happen, can happen because of their homegrown product because minorities often swing a state to blue.

http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2010/08/today-in-texas-history-texas-becomes-a-minority-majority-state-2/

If anything, some outsiders might be good for the electorate.  If one has stockbrokers moving in, they may well be conservative, ditto for those involved in oil and gas.

@RetBobbyMI

[TomSea]

Alabama is a little over 25% black, so that alone would mean many of these folks vote Democratic. Some might vote Republican though.