Zogby/Associated Television News Poll Reveals: Most Americans Oppose Voting Rights Restoration for Ex-Felons

Zogby/Associated Television News Poll Reveals: Most Americans Oppose Voting Rights Restoration for Ex-Felons

LOS ANGELES, May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- A new poll conducted by Zogby Interactive for Associated Television News and The O'Leary Report shows that most Americans are opposed to the restoration of voting rights for former felons.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030425/ATNLOGO )

The Zogby/Associated Television News poll findings show that Americans oppose aspects of the Count Every Vote Act sponsored by Senators Hillary Clinton and John Kerry that would restore the voting rights of former convicted felons. Fifty-three percent of the American public believes that such a law giving back the right to vote to felons is bad for the country. Another 71% of the country feels that the motive for such legislation is to help win elections.

Twenty-three percent of the American public believes that felons, as a class, who are released from prison should get their voting rights back while 70% of Americans believe the vote should be restored on an individual basis and not as a class.

Between 79% and 90% of the American public believes that anyone who has used a gun in a crime or guilty of a sex crime or a violent crime should face tougher standards in having their voting rights restored than those individuals convicted of a non-violent crime.

Vermont and Maine are the only two states in the country that allow felons to vote while incarcerated. Depending on the severity of the crime, between 70% and 80% of the American public opposes such provisions in the law.

One reason given for the introduction of the Clinton/Kerry bill was to return a racial balance to the disproportionate number of blacks serving time in our prison system for felonies. Yet, 61% of blacks and 66% of Hispanics believe voting rights for felons should be returned on an individual basis and not as a class as the Clinton/Kerry bill would do. An overwhelming percentage of blacks and Hispanics feel the return of voting rights should be more strict for certain types of offenders, too: 89% of blacks and 90% Hispanics (rapist and sex offenders); 87% of blacks and Hispanics (offenders who use a gun with a crime); and 83% of blacks and 84% of Hispanics (for those who commit a violent crime).

About the Poll

Zogby Interactive conducted interviews of 12,857 adults online. The online poll ran from 5/17/06 through 5/22/06. The margin of error is 0.9 percentage points.

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030425/ATNLOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Associated Television News

CONTACT: Tim McGinnis of Associated Television News, +1-727-214-4903

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