The Sentencing Project, a Washington D.C. advocacy and reform group, reports that about 176,000 people currently are disenfranchised in Arizona because of their status as ex-felons.
Current law in Arizona makes it very difficult for many convicted felons ever to vote again.
Tony Blei
County prosecutors are after Dale Schwartz for voting illegally.
Related Content
More About
If a person has been convicted of a single felony, the right to vote is automatically restored once the sentence is complete. That includes paying any fines or restitution, and completing probation.
But if that person has been convicted of two or more felonies (even in the same underlying case), he or she must petition the presiding judge in whatever county the crimes occurred. If the person did any prison time, he or she can't even apply for restoration of voting rights until two years after completing everything to do with that sentence.
And then, there's no guarantee a judge will grant the petition.
Arizona is more conservative than even Texas. In 1997, Texas' then-governor George W. Bush signed a bill eliminating that state's two-year waiting period before felons could regain the right to vote.
All of that is of little consequence or solace to Dale Schwartz, who says he is suffering from deep depression over his current plight.
Last month, he spent a few days in the county jail after he failed to appear for a pretrial hearing at Superior Court.
"I just can't believe this," Schwartz says. "There is no personal gain to voting. No one bought my vote or told me to vote. I just wanted to vote because I couldn't take Bush anymore. While I was in jail, one of the COs [correctional officers] called me aside and said to me, 'What the hell is this all about, illegal voting?'"
Schwartz manages a little joke about the whole unfortunate affair.
"Maybe they'll throw away the key on me," he says. "After all, God forbid, I might try to vote again someday."
Then he gets serious.
"Not in this lifetime."
