What is the trend nationally with respect to voting rights and expanding the franchise?
If you look at when the most restrictive laws were passed, it was around the 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, and it was part of the Civil War, Reconstruction era in which many other disenfranchising measures were implemented. These laws started to be liberalized during the civil rights era in the 50s, 60s and 70s. But if you look at the geography of disenfranchisement, it’s largely still former slave states that have the strictest prohibitions, that might disenfranchise for life. In Minnesota, we make extensive use of community supervision. Unlike many states that are really over incarcerating, we have a pretty lean and efficient criminal justice system. But people can get long probation sentences, and from the defendant’s perspective they are much happier to do probation than have to do prison time. But the upshot is that then you have people who are convicted of less serious crimes, who are disenfranchised for far longer than people convicted of more serious crimes. Is there any evidence to sug
