Re-Enfranchisement

Flashback: 2006. Pittsburgh LYVEF and the ACLU of PA want to put ads on buses, encouraging the formerly incarcerated to vote. Seems like a great program, right? The Port Authority of Allegheny County didn’t seem to think so, denying LYVEF and the ACLU-PA the right to tell voters of their civil rights, establishing that they did not allow ads that were “noncommercial”.

However, many of the ads on Pittsburgh buses are of a non-profit, civic minded nature.

After heated debate amongst both parties, Pittsburgh LYVEF and ACLU-PA decided to file a lawsuit against the Port Authority, claiming that the Port Authority was hampering civic education and the “public-education initiative launched by a coalition of local groups that seeks to increase civic engagement by formerly incarcerated ex-offenders”.

Three years later, Pittsburgh LYVEF is proud to announce that they have been victorious in their court case against the Port Authority, paving the way for civic education and public education advertisements in the future, for The League, ACLU-PA as well as other groups around the county and state. The decision is a landmark one in establishing that advertisements can, in fact, serve a great public good.

Ok, I know that voting should be very important to everyone and and if my memory serves me correctly, my grade schoolteacher impressed upon me that I wold lose my right to vote should I ever choose a life of crime. In further research I found this site to debate the subject further. http://felonvoting.procon.org/

If you are incline to think that “my vote doesn’t matter” like many people I have talked with, then please consider why this issue is being pressed by many groups across the U.S. next time your feeling not so important.