USA: Guess Who’s NOT Voting This Year?

When the vote is counted in the November elections — sure to be among the closest in our country’s history — between one and 1.5 million potential voters will have their political voice silenced. Who are these missing voters? They are adults. They haven’t been convicted of hurting anyone else or stealing anything. They are taxpaying Americans. Yet they’ve been quietly stripped of their most basic democratic right, thanks to the "war on drugs". These citizens are barred from the voting booth - for life - just because they have been convicted of a non-violent drug offense in their past. Of the four to five million Americans who are permanently disenfranchised for committing a felony, between one and 1.5 million are nonviolent drug offenders. Hundreds of thousands were convicted of nothing more than simple possession. Consider this. In some states, it’s a felony to possess a single joint. In America, unlike any other democracy, getting caught with that joint might cost you your right to vote - forever.