by Doug Farquhar
The New York Times had an interesting article, "In Alabama, a Fight to Regain Voting Rights Some Felons Never Lost," earlier this week about a curious quirk of the Alabama Constitution, which provides that only felons who have committed a "felony involving moral turpitude" are not eligible to vote. A 2005 Alabama attorney-general's opinion says, "If...a person is convicted solely of a felony that does not involve moral turpitude, that person remains eligible to vote. If a person has been convicted of a felony that does not involve moral turpitude, that person remains eligible to vote…." The story is about how this opinion is being used in Alabama today by activists who are trying to register such felons to vote.
Moral turpitude, as a legal concept, refers to conduct that would be immoral even if it were not illegal. At the 1901 Constitutional Convention, the delegates felt that only felons who engaged in both illegal and immoral conduct should lose the right to vote.
The problem is that there is no definition of what kind of felony constitutes moral turpitude. There appears to be general agreement, though, that a felony conviction for drug possession does not involve moral turpitude, meaning that the 3,000 current inmates convicted of felony drug charges should be eligible to vote.
According to The Sentencing Project, Maine and Vermont are the only two states that allow incarcerated felons to vote. Forty-seven other states ban them from voting. Alabama appears to be in a unique category of allowing some prisoners to vote but not others.
The issue of voting rights for felons, which is more often couched in terms of restoring the franchise for felons who have served their time, often divides Democrats and Republicans. In 2003 the Alabama Legislature passed a bill that made it easier for former felons to regain their voting rights. The New York Times story quotes the chair of the Alabama Republican party as saying, “As frank as I can be, we’re opposed to it because felons don’t tend to vote Republican.”
Doug Farquhar covers agriculture and trade policy and is NCSL's liaison with the Alabama Legislature. Photo of Old Kilby Prison Tower, Montgomery, Alabama, courtesy of Flickr by kenny42952.
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