more about disenfranchisement

two new studies, the first to look at felon disenfranchisement laws' effect on voting in individual cities, add to a growing body of evidence that those laws have a disproportionate effect on African-Americans because the percentage of black men with felony convictions is much larger than their share of the general population.

The Atlanta study also found that about a third of black men who had lost the right to vote because of a felony had been convicted of drug crimes.



"This is important," Mr. King said, "because drug arrests are inherently discretionary." Other research has shown that blacks do not use drugs more than whites but are arrested on drug charges, and convicted, at a much higher rate.

for more info, see here.