"The Fight To Vote. Civil Death: How Millions of Americans Lost Their Right To Vote"

Last edited Fri Aug 7, 2020, 10:28 AM - Edit history (2)

"The Fight To Vote. Civil death: how millions of Americans lost their right to vote." Voter disenfranchisement is an American tradition – we look at the historical roots of civil death. By Ayesha Sharma. The Guardian. Aug 7, 2020.

Civil death is a form of punishment that extinguishes someone’s civil rights. It’s a concept that has been reshaped and reinterpreted over many generations, persisting in the form of felony disenfranchisement, through which a citizen loses their right to vote due to a felony conviction. There are an estimated 6 million Americans who cannot vote in the country’s elections because of some form of civil death. Depending on the state they live in, they might even lose their right to vote permanently, or for years after they are released from prison. While the US has come to see this form of civil death as status quo, it is actually rare for a democratic country to take away a citizen’s voting rights after they leave prison, let alone forever.

Countries like Germany and Denmark allow prisoners to vote while incarcerated, while others restore their rights immediately after release. The US’s history of restricting the number of people who can vote in elections goes back to the colonies – and it’s a history that has disproportionately affected black people. Here is the story of how civil death in the US came to be.

- HISTORICAL ROOTS -

1100 BC-AD 1500
The roots of criminal disenfranchisement in the United States lie in ancient Athens, Rome and medieval Europe. Disenfranchisement, in these societies, was typically applied to individuals for particularly grave or election-related crimes, and resulted in civil death.

1607-1776
The principle of civil death was adopted into Anglo-Saxon law, and was then carried over to British colonies. The laws required people with some criminal offenses to forfeit property, inheritance and civil rights. Some of this was grounded in English philosopher John Locke’s theory of the social contract, which some would later interpret as a justification for felon disenfranchisement...

Read More, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/07/americans-voting-rights-disenfranchisement