Only two states allow felons to vote. Does that explain Alf Landon’s defeat?
By Kathryn Skelton
Staff Writer

Maine and Vermont.

The two whitest states in the country, first and second in maple syrup. The only ones to support Alf Landon’s run against President Franklin Roosevelt in 1936.

And the only states that allow felons to vote.

Coincidence? Well, probably.

But as the election draws near, no one seems to have a better explanation.

The rest of the country has taken away felons’ right to vote, Massachusetts being the last in 2000. And it’s a constantly questioned freedom in Maine.

Five times in the last four years legislators have proposed bills to alter the state Constitution so people jailed for murder, rape or arson couldn’t vote anymore.

Five times it has failed.

“Every few years it crops up, people get pretty excited, ‘Prisoners can vote!?’, but then the reality, when they look at the numbers that do (vote), it’s not a big deal,” said Warden Jeffrey Merrill at the Maine State Prison.

The Department of Correction’s best guess: a 3 percent participation rate.

At most, that’s 100 people.

More than 511,600 people cast ballots in last November’s election.

State Sen. Rick Bennett sponsored two bills, one in 1999, one in 2001, to take voting rights away.

Initially, “it struck me as absurd that people with controlled mental illness couldn’t vote,” but felons could, said Bennett, a Norway Republican. “Why should these people be voting?”

But constitutional change isn’t easy, requiring two-thirds support in the House and Senate. The issue has gotten a majority of the vote, but not more. Any change would still have to be approved by Mainers in a statewide referendum.

The testimony

A single prisoner wrote the Legislature’s Legal and Veterans’ Affairs Committee asking it to nix LD 200 last spring. “Being able to vote has offered myself and others the belief that we can still make a reasonable difference within this doom and gloom,” the letter stated.

The man is serving time in prison for pedophilia.

The Maine Civil Liberties Union, Maine Council of Churches, League of Women Voters of Maine and the Maine Democratic Party have all spoken against bills taking away felons’ suffrage.

David Hall of West Bath has testified a half-dozen times, representing the Friends Committee on Maine Public Policy, a Quaker group.

Some legislation has tried to ban voting for a person’s whole life, he said, and some just aimed at the time spent in jail, perhaps to make it more palatable.

“We’re trying to rehabilitate these people. The more you cut them off the less you rehabilitate them,” Hall said, adamant also that the threat of electoral restriction won’t derail someone intent on murder or selling drugs.

Bills have also brought out impassioned testimony from victims’ families who favor bringing Maine in line with everyone else.

“To me, when you have committed a crime, your rights are terminated. You should have no rights,” said Bob LaVine. The Norway man is co-leader of the Maine Chapter of Murdered Children. “My daughter, who’s a murder victim, can’t vote, why should her murderer?”

“People do not see this as an issue because it hasn’t touched them,” he added.

A captive audience

Maine also allows its other prisoners – those incarcerated for non-felony charges or convictions – to vote. At least two other states, Arkansas and Pennsylvania, also allow people jailed on misdemeanors or lesser crimes to vote, according to The Sentencing Project.

But casting a ballot requires a bit of effort and knowledge. Voting must be done by absentee ballot. The right to vote isn’t in the prison handbook, said Merrill, at the state prison. Clearly some people don’t know about it, and some just don’t care.

“They’re dealing with their own issues internally here,” he said.

Sgt. John Morissette, programs director at the Androscoggin County Jail, said inmates hear about the importance of registering to vote and civic duty through education programs.

He believes 30 to 35 percent of inmates there vote. Perhaps, he said, people serving shorter sentences feel more connected with the outside world than people in prison.

“Voting is part of being part of the community,” Morissette said. “When they leave here we don’t want them coming back.”

Despite a captive audience, not many politicians opt to stump at prisons and jails. Merrill said gubernatorial candidates sometimes request tours of the state prison.

Neither side in the heated casino debate has campaigned on the inside.

“It’s an interesting idea,” said Dennis Bailey of CasinosNO!

Erin Lehane, a lawyer and spokeswoman for pro-casino Think About It, said she was on her way into court one recent Monday morning when she was greeted by several men awaiting arraignment for alleged weekend crimes.

“They recognized me and started chatting me up about” the proposed resort casino, she said. Their theory, to her: If Maine had more jobs, people would be less likely to get into trouble. “I didn’t seek them out, but they sought me.”

So, why?

At Larry McLiverty’s old jail, candidates come in for political forums. McLiverty is director of security for the Vermont Department of Corrections and a former jail superintendent.

The oddity of campaigning in jail always attracted the press, he said, and “any free exposure is worth the trip.” A rare candidate declined the invite.

He has 2,000 inmates in his prison system. He isn’t sure what voter turnout is like -“I’m sure it’s probably not terribly impressive” – and can’t remember the right-to-vote issue coming up before the state legislature in Vermont.

So why do Maine and Vermont go against the overwhelming trend?

“I don’t really know why, to be honest with you,” McLiverty said.

Maybe it’s a liberal streak in either state, a political base reversed since Landon’s quite limited success. Maybe it’s low crime rates, lack of a death penalty and rural populace.

“Maine is an outlier,” said Bennett. The state elected two Independent governors in the last 30 years and recently put two female Republicans in the U.S. Senate and two male Democrats in the U.S. House at the same time, another rarity.

“You can’t really put Maine politicians and the Maine electorate into a box,” said Bennett.

So the ballot box remains open.

kskelton@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link