Proposition 17, Voting Restoration: Yes

It feels really weird to tell you that your default choice on propositions should be “No,” and then 3 of the first 4 reviewed advocated “Yes.” And I’ll admit, I’m also more than a little annoyed that this is on the ballot at all. This seems to me to be the business of the legislative body: They’re paid to make these decisions. Putting it on the ballot as a proposition feels like an abdication of their responsibility.

But here it is. And we now have a duty to make a choice.

Reading through the proposition materials and other information, I’m struck by two things:

• How different the states are in how they handle voting for people who are released from prison
• How this feels very racial, in that an overwhelmingly higher percentage of minorities are imprisoned in this country, and voter suppression has been aimed at minority communities

People who are released from prison are considered to have paid their debt to society. People who are released from prison early on parole have been evaluated specifically to have changed to the point where they are considered to e able to function appropriately in society.

The most fundamental right of our society is the right to vote. And it must be made available to our citizenry.

The way it is now, not only is it denied to some of our citizens, the group of citizens it is denied to is a much higher proportion of minorities than in the general population.

Opponents, meanwhile, trot out the usual fear mongering. Yes, there are some awfully bad people in this world, and in most cases, we keep them locked away. Their premise is that all of the people who have done the worst things are completely irredeemable. Not only do I not believe that (nor should you), actual data shows that to be not true. In other words, they lie.

We absolutely need to expand voting rights, not constrain them. They are currently too constrained here in California, and Proposition 17 fixes some of this. Vote Yes.