Hello there, I'm Erika, long time silent follower/fan of yours :) I'm writing a research paper this month about disenfranchisement and whether ex-felons should have their voting rights returned to them, and I was wondering if you have a strong opinion on i

Well, actually I've never been convicted of a felony, so am not an official felon, ex- or otherwise. Personally, I feel the felony/misdemeanor classification of crimes is out-dated. Crimes should be classified and ranked for seriousness as violent/non-violent. Traditionally, felonies have been serious crimes, but that has been fucked with by many states. One guy in California stole a piece of pizza and was charged with a "felony" simply because he had a very long previous record. So the felony designation is becoming meaningless. Our nation has more people behind bars than any other nation in the world, including the supposedly "unfree" China. That's a lot of people who have been disenfranchised. I believe everyone 18 or older should be able to vote. But disenfranchising people is a popular thing to do. More and more states are making it difficult to vote by requiring all kinds of IDs. Usually, people have to pay fees for these IDs, so the very poor are disenfranchised. But that was the intended (but not admitted) purpose. The very poor don't vote in great numbers, but those that do tend to be liberal, so it's a good idea from a conservative standpoint to put up barriers to keep them away from voting.