Mother Jones: Alabama's Republican Governor Just Helped Thousands of Felons Get Their Voting Rights Back

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Fifteen percent of black residents in the state have been kept away from the polls because of their criminal records, according to the Campaign Legal Center, which filed a lawsuit last year arguing the state's moral turpitude rule was discriminatory. "Felony disenfranchisement laws have the undeniable effect of diminishing the political power of minority communities," said Danielle Lang, an attorney for the center. Indeed, at the time of the state's constitutional convention, the president of the convention said the rule was intended to "establish white supremacy" in the state.

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