When his voice is removed, the laws he is held subject to lose all rationality, especially in a democracy. E.B. White, in response to the Nuremberg trials, said something akin to "If a man hangs, it does not spell justice unless he helped write the law that hanged him" (paraphrase mine). This was as true of these trails of Nazi war criminals as it is of our citizen felons. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes the right to "effective remedy" by the "national tribunals" (UN.org). By denying felons the right to vote, their access to "effective remedy" is essentially non-existent. In addition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article Two, Section three of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also insists that all people are entitled to a redress of any perceived rights violations through appropriate legal channels (HRCR.org). The international consensus seems to be that no matter what, people ought to be allowed a voice in their government. It is...

Eugene V. Debs famously said, "while there is a soul in prison, I am not free" (EDF). Though this might be going a bit far, certainly our nation is not free as long as voting powers are limited.
Works Cited

Eugene V. Debs Foundation Website. Accessed January 26, 2009. http://www.eugenevdebs.com/pages/resource.html

Felon Voting." ProCon.org. Accessed January 26, 2009. http://felonvoting.procon.org/viewresource.asp?resourceID=286

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights." Human Constitutional Rights Resources. Accessed January 26, 2009. http://www.hrcr.org/docs/Civil&Political/intlcivpol4.html

Universal Declaration of Human Rights." United nations Official Website. Accessed January 26, 2009. http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html