Parolee Voting

DENVER - A broad election reform bill that would allow paroled felons to vote was given final approval by the Senate on Thursday.

Senate Bill 83, sponsored by Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, mostly aims to correct technical problems in the state’s election laws. But the bill has provoked controversy by granting parolees the right to vote.

Sen. John Morse, a proponent of the bill, thinks giving parolees the right to vote is a practical way of keeping some convicts from returning to prison.

“I want to do everything we can to motivate people not to return to a life of crime,” Morse, a former Fountain police chief, said. “I think it will make a difference for some. I understand it won’t make a difference for every parolee. There will be some that do care.”

Morse also said he does not agree with Suthers about the Legislature’s authority on the issue.

“I respect the attorney general, and I know he knows a whole lot more about law than I do,” Morse said. “But he loses cases, too, and I think he’ll lose this one. And even if the attorney general is right and we do lose, I think we ought to err on the side of telling parolees, ‘Here’s a second chance.’”

Colorado Springs Gazette