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Comment by refurb | Hacker News Reader

What in the hell kind of analysis is this?

I’m betting $1000 that OP has never stepped foot in Mississippi.

“Negro voting disenfranchisement”?

Mississippi currently takes the right to vote away from 10.6% of it's voting age population (worst in the country), and 16% of it's black population (3rd worst in the country), due to past felony convictions. And there are many ways to earn yourself a felony in MS, often for things that wouldn't be elsewhere.

National averages are 2.3% and 6.3%.

https://mississippitoday.org/2020/10/19/study-11-of-all-miss...

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While there are both legal and legislative attempts to change it, as of now:

Mississippi currently has no provisions for re-enfranchising those with a past felony conviction, other than by a direct act of the legislature or governor for that specific individual (which is very rare).

Steal $1,001 of stuff when you're 18 and you'll likely never get to vote again in your life even if you never have another encounter with the wrong side of the law.

> And there are many ways to earn yourself a felony in MS, often for things that wouldn't be elsewhere.

Isn't a felony, by definition, a federal offense? How can they be different in different states?

No. A felony is just a classification of serious crime. It has nothing to do with whether it has federal or state jurisdiction.

In theory it has to do with if the prison sentence can last more than a year.

> Negro voting disenfranchisement

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/05/01/mississipp...

I mean, you could take the time to refute the "analysis"...?

Oh, the mainstream media says so, so it must be true!

Paywall. Would love to comment but apparently I’m not allowed.

Your contention is that Mississippi never disenfranchised its Black citizens?

If you could lay aside your hostility, I am open to your perspective. How is what I wrote incorrect?

Mississippi's main role is to make Alabama be second from the bottom in state-by-state rankings.

I say this having grown up in Alabama and gone to university in Mississippi.

Self-hating

Got nothing to do with myself. I self-hate myself for lots of other reasons than having grown up in a particular place, as does anyone with a modicum of self awareness.

There's a lot of things I love about Alabama. Even the state government occasionally gets things right, like universal pre-K. But they have a long way to go.

I don’t think OP is talking about disenfranchisement in 2020. Historical disenfranchisement checks out with my understanding of history though.

I lived in Vicksburg MS in the late 80s. Went to vote with my dad once, we had to drive out into the middle of the boonies to do it. I asked him “why did they put the voting place way out here?” We lived closer to the city, most black people in our district did as well, so they put the place to vote in a place where you would have to drive 30-45 minutes to do it.

Voter repression is not just historical.

I was talking about the historical disenfranchisement. Although some argue that the disenfranchisement of felons is similarly motivated, especially considering how easy it is to get a felony in Mississippi

I grew up in Mississippi and Louisiana, and I think OP’s take is spot-on.

I was born and raised in Mississippi. GP isn't wrong.

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