For one ex-offender who was released from jail in 2004, his re-entry into society won?t be complete until he can cast a ballot again.
“Being able to vote will make a difference in my child?s lives, in the lives of my community,” Damon Ramsey told lawmakers and hundreds of church members who rallied in Annapolis Monday to urge elimination of the three-year waiting period to vote for two-time ex-offenders.
“Who better to change the community but those who?ve destroyed the community and who have changed and know what it takes to change,” he said.
Sen. Gwendolyn Britt, D-Prince George?s, and Del. Justin Ross, D-Prince George?s, have co-sponsored legislation to restore voting rights to ex-offenders who have been convicted twice. They are currently required to wait three years after they have paid their debts to society.
Under current law, offenders with one conviction are allowed to vote again immediately after they have paid their debt. Offenders convicted of two violent crimes are still barred from voting.
Britt said this year?s proposed bill would “complete the effort of a lot of people in 2002” who repealed the lifelong voting ban for two-time offenders and instituted the current three-year waiting period. Maryland is one of 14 states that revokes voting privileges for inmates, parolees, probationers and some or all felons.
“We cannot remain silent about laws that prohibit about 8 percent of African-Americans in the state from voting,” said Bishop Adam Jefferson Richardson, presiding bishop of the 2nd Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. “It?s time to restore the rights of ex-offenders.”
“We talk about people who get counted in the census but can?t vote ? who pay taxes but can?t vote,” said Terry Lierman, chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party. “Any individual who does not have the right to vote is not a whole individual.”
