Some Americans could care less if ex-convicts can vote. Right now there are 11 states that do not allow these released inmates, living in our communities the right to vote. (These states include Florida, Alabama, Delaware, Wyoming, Iowa, Kentucky, Virginia, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, and Tennessee.)

It is amazing that we always talk about equal rights and that is a fair country. Yet once a person's prison time is served, shouldn't all of their rights be fully restored? The right to vote is one of these fundamental rights, which symbolizes, exercising your most solemn duty as a citizen of this country. By making this right not available, we run the risk of further alienating ex-convicts, who have chosen to become law abiding citizens. It is already hard enough to find a job as a ex-convict, why take away their right to vote?

Some may agree that is not worth an argument, however I beg to differ. If just one innocent person exists in our prison system, and they are denied the right to vote upon being released from incarceration, then those who holler loudest that is a fair society, should realize that this can happen to them! Mistakes in the justice system are possible and do happen, therefore let no one further suffer by not being allowed the right to vote, when their debt to society has been paid.

Nevertheless, whether guilt or lack of, ex-convicts deserve to be given another chance to live as responsible citizens among us. We should do all that is possible to decrease the numbers in prison, not try to help them go up In conclusion, let freedom ring by giving all ex-convicts the right to vote, or further lose credibility as a utopian society that the world should emulate.

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