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
Argument1 of 2›: No taxation without representation

Felons still have to pay taxes once they are gainfully employed, so they should be able to represent themselves through voting.

The argument

This argument rests the case for restoring the franchise on a principle already foundational to the country applying it. America was founded on the ideal of 'no taxation without representation' — the proposition that a government may not take from people who have no say in choosing it. The principle was asserted against a distant parliament, but it was stated as a general claim about the relationship between obligation and voice rather than as a complaint about one particular legislature. The factual premise is what brings former felons within its reach. After completing their sentences, many go on to be gainfully employed and to pay taxes to the government. That is a significant point, because it means their relationship to the state after release is the ordinary relationship of a contributing citizen. They are not merely residing in the jurisdiction; they are funding it, through the same deductions and levies as everyone else, and so they are contributing to the society whose rules bind them. The inconsistency follows immediately. If the founding principle holds that taxation without representation is illegitimate, then it is unfair to make former felons pay taxes while denying them the ability to vote for their elected officials. Their position is precisely the one the principle was formulated to condemn: subject to the demands of a government they have no part in selecting. Disenfranchisement after release therefore does not simply impose an additional penalty; it places the state in contradiction with its own founding commitment. Because those who have served their sentences help to fund the government, they deserve to be represented by it. Felons should be allowed to vote once they have served their sentence.

Premises

[P1]America was founded on the principle of "no taxation without representation." [P2] After completing their sentences, many felons are gainfully employed and pay taxes, contributing to society and funding the government. [P3] It is unfair to tax people who help fund the government while denying them any say in electing it. [C] Therefore felons should be allowed to vote once they have served their sentence.

Counter-arguments

While 'no taxation without representation' is a good idea, it does not work in practice. We do not offer everyone who pays taxes the right to vote - for instance, illegal immigrants, people under 18 - and equally, not everyone who votes pays taxes. Taxation is not the litmus test for the right to vote.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] Paying taxes should not be used as the barometer for earning the right to vote.