BALLOT BOOST Campaign backs voting rights for ex-offenders BY ALEXANDER PROVAN

Five years ago, disenfranchisement, among other things, cost Al Gore the presidency. Approximately 600,000 Floridians, where Gore lost the state by a margin of 537 votes, were disenfranchised for life due to prior felony convictions, a phenomenon that last year led the Sentencing Project to title a report, " America’s Vanishing Black Electorate. " As the name suggested, the majority of Florida’s disenfranchised voters were black — nearly one-third of all black men in Florida lack the vote — and members of communities that tend to vote Democratic.

Although local Democrats usually don’t need additional votes, the ripples of voter disenfranchisement in Florida are making an impact in Rhode Island. State Representative Joseph Almeida (D-Providence) last month introduced the Restoration of Voting Rights Act, a bill that seeks to restore the vote for offenders after they complete their prison sentences. As it stands, even model ex-offenders can’t vote while they remain on parole or probation — a situation that can last for decades. In a May 15 op-ed in the Providence Journal, Almeida questioned the wisdom of alienating the 15,000 currently disenfranchised ex-offenders: " If our goal is to integrate former offenders into a vibrant democracy and restore their pro-social aspirations — to allow them a second chance . . . [then] we must end the practice of disenfranchisement. "

Almeida’s bill seeks to change the existing law though a constitutional referendum — which supporters hope will take place this year or the next — although it must first clear the House. Marshall Clement, a Right to Vote organizer, is confident the referendum will pass, citing national polls showing that 60 percent of the population favors restoring the right of probationers and parolees to vote. " There hasn’t been any organized opposition so far, " Clement says. " People realize this is a democracy issue. "

According to " Political Punishment, " a study released last year by the Rhode Island Family Life Center (FLC), the number of citizens barred from voting in Rhode Island has increased nearly 70 percent since 1987, largely because of the greater incarceration of non-violent offenders. As in Florida, minorities and urban communities are disproportionately affected. The study found that 20 percent of black men, and one in 11 Hispanic men are currently barred from voting statewide, and that Rhode Island disenfranchises a greater share of its residents than any other New England state. Rhode Island Right to Vote (www.ririghttovote.org), a coalition coordinated by the FLC, a nonprofit resource for ex-offenders, has spearheaded the campaign to restore voting rights.

Andres Idarraga, 27, one of the currently disenfranchised Rhode Islanders, will not be able to vote for at least another 30 years. Released in June 2004 after serving nearly seven years for gun possession and distribution of cocaine, Idarraga, who attended Moses Brown high school in Providence, enrolled in college and eventually became a campaign organizer for Rhode Island Right to Vote. " It’s kind of funny, because being involved with the campaign, " he reflects, noting the potential voting power of the disenfranchised, " has made it even more frustrating than before I got involved. " Idarraga suggests the status quo aggravates the stigmatization ex-offenders feel after their release. " Is reintegration the goal? " he asks, or is it, " One mistake and you’ll be a second-class citizen forever? "

Clement views the issue through the prism of how inmates are stripped of certain civic rights while incarcerated. " In many ways, disenfranchisement makes sense " when people are in prison, he suggests. But after release, " How can we ask people to be citizens if they don’t have the most basic political right? "