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Resolution
Supporting the “Unlock Your
Vote” Campaign
WHEREAS, the League of United
Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is dedicated to
the preservation of the civil rights of all
Latinos and other minorities including their
right to vote; and
WHEREAS, LULAC
is supportive of the restoration of civil rights
rather than the disenfranchisement of
individuals who have been convicted of felonies
but have paid their debt to society; and
WHEREAS,
according to a report released recently by Human
Rights watch and the Sentencing Project, nearly
3.9 million Americans-one in fifty otherwise
eligible voters-cannot vote by virtue of their
felony status and one million of these people
have already finished their sentences; and
WHEREAS, the
last Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall
stated that “it is doubtful…whether a state can
demonstrate either a compelling or rational
interest in denying former felons the right to
vote,” and characterized the policy as a
“hindrance to the efforts of society to
rehabilitate former felons and covert them into
law-abiding and productive citizens.”
WHEREAS, United
States Representative John Conyers, Jr., a
ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee
has said that, “if we want former felons to
become good citizens, we must give them rights
and responsibilities, and there is no greater
responsibility than voting”; and
WHEREAS, the
number of felony convicts, and the resulting
disenfranchisement from the right to vote, is
grossly disproportionate with respect to
minorities including Latinos;
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT
RESOLVED that the League of United Latin
American Citizens (LULAC) join with the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF),
the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP), and the other civil
rights organizations in supporting the “UNLOCK
YOUR VOTE” campaign which I dedicated to
educating former felons who reside in states
like Texas and Florida where they can now vote
and to securing this invaluable right to former
felons in those states where the cherished right
is currently denied.
Submitted by LULAC concilio de
Justicia y Leu #4631, District XV.
Adopted this 10th day of July
2004.
Hector M. Flores
LULAC National President |
