Persons convicted of a felony and are on parole or probation are currently barred from voting in Wisconsin elections, but one lawmaker wants to change that. Representative Tamara Grigsby (D-Milwaukee) has written a bill that would change the law to allow newly released convits the right to vote, even if on parole or probabtion and still within the term of their sentence. “Why would we not want encourage public participation? Why would we not want to encourage people to exercise their right to vote?”
Backing Rep. Grigsby up with her legislation was Jimmy Gene Davidson, a man who served thirteen years in state prison, who told the Assembly Committee on Corrections and the Courts that ex-convicts “should not be apart from society, they should be a part of society ... Voting makes me a part of society.”
Grigsby told the Assembly that current voting restrictions on convicted felons are designed to bar racial minorities from the election process, citing a racial disparity within the Wisconsin prisons. “Felony disenfranchisement laws are rooted in the Jim Crow era, and were intended to bar minorities from voting,” Grigsby said.