Today is a day of big reports and big numbers.
A widely anticipated report — at least in voting
rights reporting and civil liberties circles — from
the nonprofit Sentencing Project indicated that up to
one in every 10 adults in Florida is barred from
voting because of a felony conviction. Almost 25
percent of the state’s black population faces similar
challenges at the ballot box.
That number makes Florida the national leader in
the restriction of felon voting rights. We’ve done
our own reporting on felon voting rights restoration,
but the raw numbers of the Sentencing Project’s
report created some buzz around the Internet.
Today is also the final day of the Texas photo
voter ID case in Washington, D.C. Federal Appeals
Court, which means court watchers have some time to
kill until another ruling creates a new wave of
inflammatory rhetoric on both sides.
We’ll be sure to let you know when that pops
up.
What We’ve Been Reading
“Florida leads nation in excluding
ex-felons from the polls,” (William E. Gibson,
07/12, South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
“Swing state thievery,” (Randy
Lobasso, 07/12, Salon)
“Voting rights, voting wrongs,”
(The Editors, 07/14, The Economist)
“Young U.S. Voters’ Turnout Intentions
Lagging,” (Jeffrey M. Jones, 07/13,
Gallup)
“‘Got Voter ID?’ State Efforts at
Public Educational Campaigns Vary Widely,” (Ryan
J. Reilly, 07/13, Talking Points Memo)
“NAACP president, Holder insult the
intelligence of minorities on Voter ID laws,”
(Demetrius Minor, 07/13, Red Alert
Politics)
“Hawaii’s Vanishing Voter — Special
Report on Voter Participation,” (Ian
Lind, 07/09 – 07/12, Honolulu Civil
Beat)
Twitter Trends
We’re not seeing a terrible amount of movement on
our four search terms today, despite what we might
call an abundance of tweetable and readable stories.
We would have imagined that the Florida felon story
would create a storm of outrage among users both in
favor of and against felon re-enfranchisement.
Maybe it’s because today is Friday, or because
everyone is waiting to hear the verdict in the Texas
voter ID case. But things change quickly on Twitter.
The arrival of the weekend is just a trough in the
never-ending stream of knee-jerk reactions.
Our Texas reporters in Washington, D.C. are on
their way home to the News21 newsroom this weekend,
but be sure to follow us all @WhoCanVote.