Groups push for ex-felons' voting rights

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. civil rights groups are pushing to register ex-felons to vote in November's election, observers say.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and like-minded groups are working to identify and register thousands of voters with criminal records, Stateline.org reported Tuesday.

For its part, the American Civil Liberties Union is working to persuade state lawmakers to jettison felony disenfranchisement laws. The statutes keep an estimated 5.3 million Americans with felony convictions from the polls, Stateline reported.

"Once you get change in a couple of states, you can leverage that in other states," said Laleh Ispahani, senior policy counsel with the ACLU in New York.

She said in addition to allowing more ex-felons to vote, the ACLU is urging states to pass laws to require that felons are notified of their voting rights before leaving prison.

But not everyone believes ex-felons should be allowed to cast ballots.

"If you're not willing to follow the law, then you can't claim a right to make the law for everyone else. And of course that's what you're doing when you vote," said Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative think tank in Falls Church, Va.