This article in the July 1972 issue of Freedom News, a local alternative community newspaper from Richmond, California, describes a lawsuit filed by the California Rural Legal Assistance group in 1972 on behalf of three disenfranchised ex-felons. It explains how voting rights for ex-convicts are differentially applied on the local level, based on varying interpretations of the Supreme Court's Otsuka v. Hite decision which limited denial of voting rights only to those whose crimes would "threaten the purity of the ballot box." Supporting the right to vote, evidence is provided from the President's Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence which found that denying voting rights may lead to alienation and negative, sometimes violent, expressions of emotion. The article closes with a quote from the president of the League of Women Voters of California who said that "An ex-felon should have the same rights as all other citizens, so that he will again feel that he is a part of society and has a legitimate role in the political process."
