The discrepancy in state voting laws for ex-felons has come to national attention this election year partially due to a study by Jeff Manza, acting director of the Institute for Policy Research and associate professor of sociology at Northwestern.

Manza’s study, “Punishment and Democracy: Disenfranchisement of Nonincarcerated Felons in the United States,” revealed that about 5 million ex-felons across the country are not allowed to vote.

In 14 states — including battleground states Florida, Iowa and Arizona — inmates, parolees and probationers are not allowed to vote in federal, state or local elections.

“(This situation) has very important unintended consequences,” Manza said.

After looking at criminal justice statistics from all 50 states, adjusting for mortality and reconviction rates, Manza estimated more than 2.5 percent of the voting age population is ineligible because of ex-felon status.

This does not include about 600,000 people in jails awaiting trail sentencing or other resolutions their case, according to the study.

“I’m quite confident that we’re not exaggerating the problem,” Manza said.

A few political steps at the federal level have been taken, but this is a state’s rights issue, Manza added.

“His work has been significantly responsible for bringing these issues to public attention,” said Jessie Allen, associate council for the democracy program at New York University School of Law.

“Jeff is one social scientist who really did early work on this issue,” she said. Allen said she has used Manza’s work for legal and policy arguments.

“The combination of high quality of scholarship and commitment is invaluable to advocates,” Allen added.

The state that has the highest ex-felon disenfranchisement rate is Florida, Manza said.

“More than one in four black men cannot vote (in Florida).” Manza said.

“If (the ex-felons) were allowed to vote, Al Gore would have carried the state by 30,000 to 60,000 (votes),” Manza predicted.

After seeing Manza’s study, University of New Mexico assistant law Prof. Timothy Canova showed the results to state lawmakers and New Mexico adopted legislation enfranchising more than 54,000 of its ex-felons in early 2002.

Eventually Manza said he would like to see felons and ex-felons given the right to vote in every state.

“It’s a core American right of citizenship,” Manza said.

Reach Ashima at [email protected].