The Sentencing Project: Disenfranchisement News & Updates - 6/21/07

Wisconsin: Grandmother's Voter Fraud Conviction Upheld The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago last week upheld Kimberly Prude's voter fraud conviction, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Prude, a grandmother of three on state supervised probation, cast an absentee ballot in the 2004 presidential election. When she realized her 2000 conviction banned her from voting under Wisconsin law until her entire sentence was completed, she tried to rescind her vote but was told by an election commission employee that it wasn't necessary, she said. Prude is expected to be released in the fall. International: Voting Rights of Inmates Challenged in Australia High Court An ongoing debate on who has the right to decide which citizens vote will soon be addressed as a law banning inmates' right to vote is being challenged in Australia's High Court, according to The Law Report. Last year the federal government tightened up voter registration rules which banned all prisoners from voting. Vicki Lee Roach, an inmate in a Melbourne jail, is arguing that the Commonwealth Electoral Act provisions barring those in prison from voting in federal elections are unconstitutional. The Court will make its decision in a few months. - - - - - - Help The Sentencing Project continue to bring you news and updates on disenfranchisement! Make a contribution today. Contact Information: Email: [email protected], web: http://www.sentencingproject.org.