Electoral Administration Bill

This amendment does not go as far as, say, the legislation in places such as Florida, where Jed Bush was able to exclude anyone ever convicted of an offence from voting in order to assist the—I was going to say ““election”” but perhaps I should say ““winning””—of the presidency by his brother in controversial circumstances in 2000. The amendment strikes at the heart of the principle of rehabilitation of offenders. If you suggest to someone that if they commit a crime they will lose the right to vote because they are in prison, it is not actually much of a deterrent. In fact, it is not really a deterrent at all. I do not think that anyone committing a serious offence and convicted of it will think, ““Well, I had better not do that again or I might lose my right to vote””. I think that it is low down the list of such a person’s priorities. But if we are seriously trying to engage with these people in civil society, I suggest that they should vote in elections and participate in choosing their lawmakers. That would be an appropriate thing to do. If you take their right to vote and to choose their lawmakers, you are not sending them a very strong signal that they should respect the laws that are made.