Coleman Literature Review 1

Literature Review
Convicted Felons: Should they be allowed to vote?
Writing II
Professor: Melissa Piumelli

Coleman Literature Review 2
Introduction:
The term disenfranchisement or taking away a criminals right to vote, has been around since ancient Greece and Rome Eras. In Europe, a condition called “civil death” involves the forfeiture of property, the loss of the right to appear in court and a prohibition on entering into contracts, as well as loss of voting rights. Convicted felons of …show more content…

Senator Clinton says that there are 4.7 million such disenfranchised felons in 48 states and the District of Columbia. This power currently lies with the individual states,
(http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/02/politics/ex-felon-votingrights/index.html)
Coleman Literature Review 5 causing standards to vary. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution explicitly allows states to deny felons the right to vote. From past statistics, felons bring an overwhelming vote for Democrats. Is this is a sly way for Democrats to change the game and obtain an abundance of votes to carry them to a win for a future election? In past studies by Jeff Monza and Marcus Britton of Northwestern University and Christopher Uggen of University of Minnesota estimated that Bill Clinton pulled 86 percent of the felon vote in 1992 and a whopping 93 percent in 1996. These numbers proved that the felon vote had a huge impact on the result of elections soon to come. Ex-con votes have great impact on the results of an election and could change the voting process forever. The researchers found that about 30 percent of felons vote when given the chance. So, if all 4.7 million of Mrs. Clinton’s ex-cons are re-enfranchised, about 1.4 million will cast ballots, and about 1.2 million of those will be for Democrats. Manza & Co’s results indicate that this “felon vote” would have