He stepped out of the door after I had left a door-hanger on his door. "Excuse me," he said, then asked me what I stood for as a candidate. I ventured to tell him my stand on prisons and prisoner treatment. Turns out, he served time in Indiana.
As I left, it occurred to me that as an ex-con, he cannot vote. Now, just to meet this guy, you would think him about as good of an individual as there is. Still, we've got a system that won't let him vote. I came home and reviewed the statistics. Twenty million Americans are ex-convicts. That's roughly 8 percent of our population.
Disenfranchised. Not allowed to vote.
I came home and thought of a neighbor, and how she is an ex-con. She wanted to run for office, same office I am running for. I don't believe there is any law against her running for office. But, she can't vote, so that's one less vote she'll have. Point is, she is a good, responsible citizen. She should be allowed to vote.
My new friend (if I can call him that, though I will never see him again) should also be allowed to vote. If you know enough ex-cons, you also know that some of them are simply gems.
Of course they should be allowed to vote. They are part of our citizenry.
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