Should felons be allowed to vote?

Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: Should felons be allowed to vote?
Position1 of 5›: Felons should be allowed to vote once they have served their sentence
Argument‹2 of 2: Felons have paid their debt to society

By serving their sentence, felons have repaid their debt to society. Disenfranchisement means they are continually punished.

The argument

The argument rests on what a prison sentence is understood to be and on what follows once it has been completed. Imprisonment is a punishment for crime. A sentence is a determinate quantity imposed by a court, which decides not only that someone should be punished but how much punishment is warranted. That figure is the answer to the question of what the offence deserves, and the system treats it as such: the person is released when it has been served, rather than when anyone happens to be satisfied. It follows that once a felon leaves prison, they have completed their punishment and repaid their debt to society. The debt metaphor is load-bearing here. A debt that has been paid is discharged; the creditor has no further claim, and continuing to collect after settlement is not enforcement but a new imposition. If the sentence was the right one, nothing is outstanding at the moment it ends. If something were still owed, the sentence would have been too short, and that is a judgement for the court at sentencing rather than for the state afterwards. Restricting voting rights after release is therefore a second punishment rather than a continuation of the first. It is imposed on someone whose punishment is over, it was not part of what the court weighed, and it has no endpoint at which it too is discharged. It also falls on a civic status rather than on liberty, denying a person any say in the laws they now live under as a free citizen. Because their punishment is over and further restriction by the state is unfair, proponents argue, felons should be allowed to vote once they have served their sentence.

Premises

[P1]Imprisonment is the punishment for a crime, so once a felon has left prison they have completed that punishment and repaid their debt to society. [P2] With the sentence served, restricting their voting rights amounts to punishing them further, which is unfair. [C] Therefore felons should be allowed to vote once they have served their sentence.

Counter-arguments

The situation is not so straightforward that we can say that once a felon leaves prison, they are finished with their punishment. The State has numerous mechanisms to mediate felons' returns into wider society, such as probation. All of their rights and freedoms are not automatically reafforded to them, and voting should be no different.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] Just because they have served a sentence does not mean felons have proved they deserve to vote.

Proponents cited

Joe Biden
“Biden believes in redemption. After incarcerated individuals serve their time, they should have the opportunity to fully reintegrate into society, earn a good living, and participate in our democracy as our fellow citizens. It will not only benefit them, it will benefit all of society. It is also our best strategy to reduce recidivism. . . The Biden Administration will incentivize states to automatically restore voting rights for individuals convicted of felonies once they have served their sentences.”
Elizabeth Warren
““Once someone pays their debt to society, they’re out there expected to pay taxes, they’re expected to abide by the law, they’re expected to support themselves and their families. I think that means they’ve got a right to vote. While they’re still incarcerated, I think it’s a different question. And I think that’s something that we could have more conversation about.””