Posted on 02/09/2016 9:52:02 AM PST by House Atreides
The Maryland Senate narrowly overrode Gov. Larry Hogan's final veto from last year's General Assembly session, paving the way to reinstate voting rights to felons before they complete probation or parole.
The 29-18 vote on Tuesday puts the law on the books 30 days from now and represents a political defeat for Hogan, a Republican. The bill was the sixth that Hogan vetoed last year, and the sixth the Democrat-controlled General Assembly reinstated.
The vote, twice delayed in order to muster enough support, followed an expansive debate that touched on resolving racial disparities in the criminal justice system and protecting victims of violent crime. Proponents argued voting would help felons rejoin society. The current system requires felons to complete probation and parole before registering to vote. Supporters of the law said that process was confusing and demoralizing to people trying to rebuild their lives.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Hard to understand why Maryland voters would elect a stand-up guy like Hogan, then sh*t on him by handing him a communist legislature.
Hopefully, theses felons’ Second Amendment rights are also “reinstated” by these goofballs. Maryland “deserves” it.
The corrupt morons in the General Asylum win another one.
The voters got smart with Hogan, now they need to get rid of the rest of these entrenched politicians.
I never realized just how bad this place was when I moved here until I found out that the State Senate office building is actually named after the sitting Senate President. He has presided with an iron liberal fist since 1987.
Though that thought pattern may have been valid 20 or 30 years ago .... a LOT of good Americans were made to be felons by stupid laws and bad jurisprudence over the years
There's another way to look at "felons" that have "regained a right"
I, f'rinstance, "became" a felon in 1969 ............ 45 years later;
five children, 30 some years born again, faithful husband to one wife, taxpayer ...
I'm still a "felon"
My gun(s) fell in a lake a while back while scuba diving
PS ... the felons your comment conjures don’t vote anyway and never will
If one has served his or her sentence, including any and all probation/parole, and met the terms of the release, then why shouldn't one's rights be returned to him or her?
When you have people who are free to walk about in society, but have to follow a subset of rules because of a prior status, then you have second-class citizens. We are all supposed to be equal under the law. If the person is too dangerous to have his or her rights returned upon completion of his or her sentence, then why is this too-dangerous person being released to live in society again?
Marylanders are being Pavlov-trained on the consequences of voting for Democrats.
I don’t believe felons should be given back all their rights by default in any way.
But I strongly believe there should be a fair and navigable pathway to get rights re-instated to those who deserve it.
Like you.
“MY legislator is not the bad guy. He got the road paved. He got us a grant to expand the community center. His aide fixed that stupid problem I was having with the DMV”.
Story is always something like that.
Bad idea. I don’t support stripping the civil rights for everyone who made a bad judgement call somewhere in their life. But there needs to be a reasonable period of time following the completion of sentence that demonstrates the Felon has learned from that mistake. In general I think that should be five years for voting rights and ten years for gun rights. And gun rights should only be restored for one time non-violent offenders. Any second offense or record of violence and they are gone forever.
“He got the trains runnin’ on time!”
With this veto override, felons in Maryland no longer have to complete their parole/probation to vote.
IL did the same thing, we elected a decent Governor (we all thought he was a huge RINO but he’s been decent) but gained just 1 state Senate seat and none in the House, Rat Supermajorities in both. So lame. We only needed to gain 1 in the House to push the rats under the 3/5 supermajority. GOP got 49% of the popular vote and under 40% of the seats
Maryland leg totally sucks, the bastards are completely entrenched, 4 year terms for the lower House and arcane muli-member districts, gerrymandered, awful.
It really IS a "big tent." Of course, so was the side show at Ringling Brothers.
Then I would disagree with it. That is part of the punishment for the crime.
At least here in VA I can take solace in the fact our Virginia House of Delegates is strongly and assertively conservative. It's been very effective at rendering Bagman McAuliffe little more than a paperweight.
Should reinstate felons only after all paper is served
Tennessee does that for local voting and limited gun rights restoration
Long guns
rational post
freepers love their law and order
till it bites themn
I have a stepson with a similar past. He deserves to regain his rights.
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