Their Convictions For Obama. By Uncle Monty.

Their Convictions For Obama.

U.S. Election Notes By Uncle Monty.

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Convicted criminals or felons in America cannot vote under
long held anti-convict federal, state, and county laws. Such
laws prevent ex-jail birds or ex-cons from casting their votes in
national, state and local elections due to the legal loss of their voting
rights based on their criminal conviction(s) for such things from
murder to drug pushing to sex crimes to armed robbery

and so on and so forth.

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A disproportionate number of African-Americans and
poor whites (called “white trash” or “pofolk” in the states)

are imprisoned and convicted annually by the millions

for felonious crimes. They, therefore, are the ones who
also lose their right to vote year in and year out. They’re

the ones for the most part who also cannot legally vote in

this year’s 2oo8 U.S. Presidential Election for either
Democrat Barack Obama and/or Republican John McCain,
except in states that provide relief to such inmates and
former inmates to lawfully cast their ballots.

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It was The Associated Press news reports by Dionne
Walker and Mike Baker on the issue of denied voting rights
to convicts and ex-convicts that caught my eye to include such
here in my U.S. Election Notes with only 28 days now left before
America decides who will be her next president after vile George

W. Bush leaves his vulgar presidency in January, 2oo9.

***

The news copy by AP news reporters Walker and Baker

is therefore given below for U.S. election watchers, like

me, to read their feature story on the issue of such denial

of fundermental voting rights to millions under America’s

anti-felon laws to this present day:

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Chain Gang Inmate Under Penal Punishment

Push to register felons to vote could aid Obama
By Dionne Walker and Mike Baker,
Associated Press writers.
RICHMOND, Va. -- Undaunted by the heat, James Bailey

spent his late-summer afternoons walking Virginia's bleakest

neighborhoods on the hunt for ex-cons - each a potential voter

who might cast the decisive ballot in this hotly contested state.
Finding them isn't the hard part. It's getting them to admit

that a past mistake has kept them from the ballot box.
"People are really, really reluctant to say, 'I lost my rights

to vote,'" Bailey said of his quest, which continued in the

run-up to Monday's registration deadline in Virginia for
the November election.
Nationally, there are roughly 4 million released felons whose

convictions have cost them the right to vote at least temporarily,

if not permanently. To return to the ballot box, felons must

negotiate suffrage laws that vary from state to state, in many

cases working with election officials who can be both unfamiliar

with the law and hostile to former convicts seeking to register.

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A seemingly good success story is ex-con Uchendi Nwani.

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Such challenges matter little to Bailey and others trying to
return former criminals to voter rolls, an effort they consider
crucial in light of the results of the past two presidential elections:
A shift of a few hundred votes in Florida in 2000 would have
changed the outcome of the presidential race, and the results
in 2004 came down to a margin of 119,000 votes in Ohio.
The nonprofit groups and individual activists making the push
on felons' behalf agree the effort is broader this year than in
previous elections, even if they aren't necessarily making a
coordinated push. They expect that effort to benefit Barack
Obama more than John McCain, given that the population
of former felons is disproportionately black.
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Obama has co-sponsored a Senate measure that would allow
all ex-felons to vote, but his campaign isn't directly targeting
ex-felons for registration. His campaign does include relevant
info on its Web site and educates volunteers so they can explain
state laws to those who may not realize they have the right to
vote, said spokesman Kevin Griffis."All we're trying to do is
make sure that, if someone is eligible, that they know their
rights and that if they want to vote, they can take part,"
Griffis said Tuesday. "I think there's a lot of misinformation
out there. Even people who may have been guilty of a mis-
demeanor feel like the felony laws apply to them and say
they can't vote."
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McCain has said states should decide whether felons have
voting rights. But he personally believes ex-felons should
forfeit certain rights when they commit a serious crime
and that the right to vote should be restored only on a
case-by-case basis - much like Virginia's process.
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Roughly 13 percent of black men nationwide have lost the right to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law, which advocates the reform of felon voting rights. Black ministers, civic leaders and activists believe they are a rich source of votes for Obama. "Of course I would go with Barack," said Deshawn Tatem, a dreadlocked drug dealer-turned-activist from Chesapeake, Va. But he's never cast a ballot. "Right at 18, I caught the felony." Tatem has never made the time to fill out an application to restore his voter rights, aarequest that would have to be approved by the governor. That means there's no way
He’ll be able to vote in (the) November 4th (Presidential Election).
In Florida, where a new rule means more than 115,000 former felons who completed their sentences are now able to vote, civil rights attorney Reggie Mitchell said he's nonpartisan when he calls felons at home to give them information about registering to vote. But he also acknowledges the obvious. Blacks represent "about 40 percent of the people who've gotten their rights lost and restored," Mitchell said. "With an African-American running, and such a critical mass, this could have a tremendous impact." Kenneth Glasgow served 14 years on robbery and drug charges in Alabama. Now a pastor, Glasgow launched a voter registration drive inside the prisons in Alabama, where state law allows voting by felons convicted of lesser crimes such as possession of small amounts of drugs, battery or attempted burglary - even while still serving a sentence.

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The Bushes With Elizabeth II and Philip

Glasgow, a Democrat, estimates as many as 70,000 felons in Alabama might be eligible to vote but haven't registered. Bringing them to the polls, he said, has the potential to alter the state's political landscape. "It's not a black-white thing," Glasgow said. "It's that people will see Republicans standing against having people's rights restored while the Democrats aren't."
The state Department of Corrections halted Glasgow's registration drive after two days because of complaints from the chairman of the Alabama Republican Party that registering inmates without adequate monitoring could lead to voter fraud. Fewer than 80 inmates filled out registration forms. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund has filed suit challenging the prison commissioner's decision to stop the registration drive.

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Only two states - Maine and Vermont - place no limits on voting due to a criminal conviction; even prison inmates can cast a ballot. Kentucky and Virginia are the only two states that permanently bar felons from voting, although the governors of those states can restore voting rights to individuals. (Mike Baker reported from Durham, North Carolina. Associated Press writer Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama., contributed to this report)

Back now to my own thoughts: Four million of anything is pretty big, I think most would agree. Be it people or dollars, and/or votes. That’s alot of anything, too. So to find that four million American ex-cons are denied the right to vote due to their legal loss of such a right and privilege is enough to make any politican looking for those “few” extra votes (yea, just a "few" million mind you) to send them scurrying quickly for those with such votes like the ex-jailbirds hiding in the woodwork all over the Unites States. Obama or McCain could well win the 2oo8
presidency with just having a mere one percent of those presently criminally-convicted and disenfranchised voters voting for them. It’s natural that most of them, the ex-felons, would probably vote for Obama as the wannabe first U.S. black president.

It is automatically assumed that by being black, you’re like most blacks wanting to vote for Barack Obama. Republicans are already shafted, but if more blacks like do Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and notable Colin Powell vote Republican instead of invariably Democratic then they may indeed better the country’s future and their own. The Democratic Party takes for granted the black vote. It also nurtures a sense of victimhood that blacks and other minorities incessantly feed on, much, I think, to their ultimate detriment and aspirations. Wallowing by constantly nursing a sense of injustice and prejudice will not bring about change per se, except Democratic political window dressing to ensure African-Americans and other minorities still continue to blindly vote, has they did for the ilk of Bill Clinton in the past, for their current “saviour” and fellow black Obama. He's otherwise called the "Black Kennedy" or "Black Abe Lincoln" of today. Barack Obama is no more a Kennedy or a Lincoln than I am a Yankee buying pre-cooked American Apple Pie at my local Wal Mart or known as ASDA in the UK. They, “the oppressed,” may all be in for a very rude awaking on Election Day, 2oo8, to find John McCain and Sarah Palin – “Mr. And Mrs. America” – swapping places with George and Dick at the Oval Office. The Democrats won’t know what hit them for sure and then Barack and Joe will wither away to wonder what the hell really happened to them. They’ll feel like those disenfranchised convicts all over America living in the so-called “Land of Milk and Honey.” Yea, the milk is now so sour for so many and the honey is so dried up its hard to swallow in their own walloping wallow. Thus, for millions of Americans they’re at a loss to really think their own country is still “America the Beautiful” for them. For the majority of black and pofolk convicts, it seems, America the beautiful is already truly dead for most of them as the billion dollar U.S. prison industry grinds and degrades them bit by bit each day without any mercy or justice. Can you expect them, otherwise, to love America? I think not …

Now for the very lastest from America with Reuter’s news
reports on the current status of the presidential race:
“John McCain's path to the White House has become
perilously narrow as Barack Obama gains momentum
in crucial battleground states,” states the world news
agency on it’s official website at http://reuters.com just
moments ago. Plus, there's talk now of even a possible
presidential election tie between Obama and McCain.
Woooooooooooooooow ... let's hope not ...

:: News Update ::

Kenya to deport U.S. author of critical Obama book.
By Wangui Kanina and Humphrey Malalo.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4963SF20081007
Tue Oct 7, 2008 9:04am EDT
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Guess Who’ll Win The White House?
Such will be my final U.S. Election Notes for 2oo8.
My story will be posted a few short days before Nov. 4th.

Truly, Uncle Monty. +20th Sunday after Trinity, 2oo8.

:: Lead Caption Photo: Rare Image, c. 1930's, of American Chain Gang ::