TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Voter outreach efforts aimed at ex-felons are under way in several U.S. states where their voting rights have been restored.
One such state is Florida, where Gov. Charlie Crist, frequently mentioned as a possible running mate for likely Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain, teamed with black state legislators to permit many non-violent ex-felons to vote, The Washington Post reported Monday.
There, lawyer Reggie Mitchell is leading a grassroots effort by civil rights and Democratic Party activists to reach former felons and sign them up as voters. The Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, the Rev. Al Sharpton's younger brother, has taken the voter registration drive into Alabama's prisons. In Tennessee the American Civil Liberties Union has sued to make it possible for an even larger class of felons to register, the Post said. Other efforts are active in California and Ohio.
But neither McCain, the Arizona Republican senator, nor probable Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., have embraced efforts to restore felons' voting rights, the newspaper said. Analysts said the candidates don't want to appear soft on crime.
