140 Years of Disenfranchisement Coming to a Close in England

The United Kingdom appears set to end its 140-year disenfranchisement law barring prisoners from voting.

As one of the only governments in the world that has felony disenfranchisement, this would leave the US in an even smaller minority of countries - and Kentucky is still in a tiny minority withing the US in that we disenfranchise all former felons, even after they've served their debt to society (unless they get a pardon from the Governor).

The opposition to the eliminating blanket felony disenfranchisement in the UK seems to mostly focus on the origin of the change - the European Court of Human Rights - and seems to focus much less on defending the merits of disenfranchising prisoners.

Here are some news stories with details:

- The case for democracy behind bars - The Independent

- Prisoners may get the vote after euro-ruling - Politics.co.uk

- Sentencing Project Disenfranchisement news