THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2171
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2010
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE II, SECTION 2 OF THE HAWAII CONSTITUTION TO ALLOW FOR CONVICTED FELONS TO VOTE.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that by disallowing convicted felons to vote, the State is disenfranchising them based on ideas that are not necessarily true.  Much of the background of forbidding convicted felons to vote is the fear that these people will "outvote" everyone else and destroy our country.  To assume that, if allowed to vote, felons would vote more than the general population is far-fetched.  Voting is an essential, if not quintessential part, of democracy.  People may choose to vote or refrain, but the State should not be making that decision for them.  If the State is to truly embrace the policy that incarceration should include an element of rehabilitation, then convicted felons should be allowed the freedom to vote as every other citizen is.

     The history of felony disenfranchisement is also highly based on race and discriminatory prosecution.  It has been widely reported, and it is still the case, that people of color are targeted, arrested, and prosecuted in higher numbers than their white counterparts.  The numbers of non-white felons incarcerated still continues to outpace the actual proportion of their race in the general population.  For example, in a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case where the court ruled against Seattle's disenfranchisement laws, evidence was presented that blacks and latinos were disproportionately arrested because the police targeted crack cocaine, while the majority of drug dealers and drug users in the city were found to be white.

     The purpose of this Act is to propose a constitutional amendment to allow for convicted felons to vote.

     SECTION 2.  Article 2, section 2, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii is amended to read as follows:

"DISQUALIFICATION

Section 2.  No person who is non compos mentis shall be qualified to vote.  [No person convicted of a felony shall be qualified to vote except upon the person's final discharge or earlier as provided by law.]"

    SECTION 3.  The question to be printed on the ballot shall be as follows:

    "Shall a convicted felon who is presently incarcerated be qualified to vote prior to their final discharge?" 

     SECTION 4.  Constitutional material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.

     SECTION 5.  This amendment shall take effect upon compliance with article XVII, section 3, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii.

INTRODUCED BY:

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Report Title:

Constitutional Amendment; Allowing Convicted Felons to Vote

Description:

Proposes a constitutional amendment to allow convicted felons to vote while still imprisoned.

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