voting like a felon

So it's been a while since I've posted something. I was just keeping you all in...

Actually, my life so busy and interesting, I had no time. Uh, yeah.

I am currently trying to start a club at BYU for pre-architecture students. It's harder than I thought. We had our first meeting this last Monday, but only one other student showed up. Sad day for me. But I have had ten more people sign up since then, so we'll try to meet next Saturday and merge with the already existing Design-Build Club, with the Architecture Club being a sub-club of Design-Build. I like the sound of "sub-club." Design-Build is actually a pretty cool program. It's the kind of company that I would like to start someday. It's where the construction manager and the architect belong to the same company, ao that things happen a lot faster and smoother. It's like the old system of building something, such as the old cathedrals in Europe, with a Master Building overseeing every part of the construction process. That's what I want to be when I grow up...a Master Builder. Doesn't that sound cool?
This week, I have to give a persuasive speech in my public speaking class. I was trying to think about different topics to persuade people of. At first I thought about school prayer, but I wasn't sure if I was for it or against it. I mean, I think it's good to have a separation between church and state--that's the type of government Christ will organize when he comes again, with the Old Jerusalem being the center for the church and the New Jerusalem being the center for the state--but I also believe that the Supreme Court could've taken it a bit too far.

So instead of deep contemplation, trying to figure out what I thought would be the right balance, decided to talk about the voting rights of felons. Did you know that in ten states, once you have been convicted of a felony you become disenfranchised forever? No matter how good of a citizen you become, you will never, ever be allowed to vote again. That's pretty crazy when you think about it because some Senators have been convicted felons. Sen. Ted Stevens has been convicted of seven felonies. And in some states, once you're a felon, you can't become a school teacher, a firefighter, serve on a jury, or even be a barber.
However, in Vermont and Maine, they let everyone vote, even those serving their sentences in prison. That seems a little extreme to me. I think what should happen is that those in prison have relinquished their right to vote (after all, prisons are made to restrict people's rights), but once they are released from prison and have paid their debt to society, their right to vote should be restored.
Political scientists say that if felons were allowed to vote in Florida, Al Gore would've won the 2000 election. That's with the calculatino that only 33% of the felons would actually vote and that a third of them would vote Republican.
Crazy, huh?