Federal Voting Rights Legislation Hearing Tomorrow

House Bill 70 is the strongest vehicle we have in Kentucky right now to push to restore voting rights to most former felons in the state. But KFTC also has supported federal legislation since it was filed in August that would represent a big step forward.  The bill finally seems to be moving!

The U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties will hold a hearing on H.R. 3335, the Democracy Restoration Act of 2009, on Tuesday, March 16 at 2 p.m.

The Democracy Restoration Act of 2009 would restore federal voting rights to millions of Americans with past felony convictions. An estimated 5.3 million citizens cannot vote as a result of felony convictions, and nearly 4 million of these individuals are living and working in their communities. Under H.R. 3335, anyone who is not incarcerated would be eligible to vote in federal elections, even if barred from voting in state elections.

Hearing witnesses include:

    * Roger Clegg (President, General Counsel, Center for Equal Opportunity)

    * Andres Idarraga (an impacted person currently in his last year at Yale Law School).

    * Burt Neuborne (Legal Director, Brennan Center for Justice)

    * Ion Sancho (Supervisor of Elections, Leon County, Florida)

    * Hilary Shelton (Director, Washington office, NAACP)

    * Hans von Spakovsky (Attorney, former member, Federal Election Commission)

    * Carl Wicklund (Executive Director, American Probation and Parole Association)

You can visit the pages of members of the committee and email them or call their offices to ask them to support H.R.3335.  None of the committee members are from Kentucky, but if you know people in these districts it would be great if you asked them to call in.

KFTC will also be contacting our members in these districts today.

Thanks to our allies at The Sentencing Project who provided an email notice that this blog post was derived from.