Rick Santorum Blasts Mitt Romney Over Voting Rights For Felons In 2012 South Carolina GOP Debate

Rick Santorum schooled Mitt Romney in classic Santorum fashion during the GOP debate in South Carolina Monday night, drawing him in and pouncing. A super PAC backing Romney has been attacking Santorum for supporting restoration of voting rights to felons who have served their time. The ad implied that Santorum wanted felons who were currently in prison to vote.

Santorum put the question directly to Romney: "Do you believe that felons who have exhausted their time" should have their voting rights restored?

Romney ducked and weaved, but Santorum finally got his answer, after noting that today is Martin Luther King Day, and that the bill was called the Martin Luther King Voting Rights bill. He added that African Americans have "disproportionately high rates" of incarceration, especially with regard to drug crimes.

"I don't think people who have committed violent crimes should ever be allowed to vote," Romney said. Santorum jumped on him, noting that Massachusetts, while he was governor, had a more liberal law, allowing felons on parole and probation to vote, and that Romney had done nothing to change it.

Romney blamed the Democratic legislature.

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Comments

[superbombastik]

02:57 PM on 01/17/2012

"violent criminals shouldn't vote, even coming out of office"...what a great quote from Governor Romney.
Once AGAIN, Santorum show himself to be an excellent man of intelligence, ethics, diplomacy and fact. Romney is just another middle of the road, salesman, RINO.

[Views from the Middle]

03:20 PM on 01/17/2012

Santorum is a sexist, homophobic reactionary who would take our country into the dark ages.

[mrmoonlite5]

04:11 PM on 01/17/2012

sounds like your a freeking MoRmOn all beleef in the devil

[tlee47ftw]

02:43 PM on 01/17/2012

According to a chart that I found on line, there are 13 states that may bar felons permanently from voting but some of those base it on the crime, when it was committed and other variables. All the others allow felons to vote at some point. Two states allow them to vote from prison.
I don't think a person that commits a crime and pays his, or her, debt to society should be barred from the most sacred American right. That of voting. I also do not support the various voter ID bills for the same reason. The fact is there is almost no evidence of voter fraud that will be cured by voter ID. And yet there are up to 2 million people that currently don't qualify under those requirements. We used to try and make it easier to vote, now all of a sudden we are trying to make it harder. A mere sixty percent participation is tremendous in an election and now we are trying to block voters.

[bmitche]

02:37 PM on 01/17/2012

Give him hell Santorum !

[vixter72]

02:30 PM on 01/17/2012

University of California $1,648,685
Goldman Sachs $1,013,091
Harvard University $878,164
Microsoft Corp $852,167
Google Inc $814,540
JPMorgan Chase & Co $808,799
Citigroup Inc $736,771
Time Warner $624,618
Sidley Austin LLP $600,298
Stanford University $595,716
National Amusements Inc $563,798
WilmerHale LLP $550,668
Columbia University $547,852
Skadden, Arps et al $543,539
UBS AG $532,674
IBM Corp $532,372
General Electric $529,855
US Government $513,308
Morgan Stanley $512,232
Latham & Watkins $503,295
--------------------------2008 presdiential campaign donations...guess which candidate

[vixter72]

02:33 PM on 01/17/2012

Merrill Lynch $375,895
JPMorgan Chase & Co $343,505
Citigroup Inc $338,202
Morgan Stanley $271,902
Goldman Sachs $240,295
US Government $202,929
AT&T Inc $201,938
Wachovia Corp $199,663
UBS AG $187,493
Credit Suisse Group $184,153
PricewaterhouseCoopers $169,400
US Army $169,020
Bank of America $167,826
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher $160,346
Blank Rome LLP $155,226
Greenberg Traurig LLP $147,437
US Dept of Defense $146,356
FedEx Corp $131,974
Lehman Brothers $126,557
Ernst & Young $114,506
----------------------------------other presidential candidates top contributors.....can you tell by reading them which list belongs to Obama and which to McCain?

[fusillijerry]

09:37 PM on 01/17/2012

I don't see the NRA or the Moral Majority. It must not be a Republican.

[leftwingthom]

01:23 PM on 01/17/2012

News flash! The ENTIRE GOP is trying to restrict voting rights in swing states so that they can once again steal the election for themselves. Any argument a conservative has for freedom/small government/whatever is officially nullified. Go home, reactionaries.

[cireneed]

02:15 PM on 01/17/2012

Wouldn't it be a lot easier to skip all the voting and just let the Supreme Court decide (again).

[liftstation]

01:00 PM on 01/17/2012

Almost forgot to mention, I PAY over $3000/year in property taxes. Now times that by over the 400,000 convicted felons just in the state of Florida if a court rules that we don't have to pay peoperty taxes thats
$1,200,000,000. Think how that will effect the state's budget. Any attorneys out there want to take a class action do the math and get back with me I have the basics done. And still I can't vote.

[fap1947]

01:46 PM on 01/17/2012

Wish I had to pay only $3000 a year in property taxes. And no, I am not rich and don't live in a mansion. Are you saying people in prison in Florida are paying property taxrs on thier cells?

[gafl3]

12:58 PM on 01/17/2012

I think that if you don't pay taxes you don't get to vote, let the people who support this country decide its future

[miahurley]

01:03 PM on 01/17/2012

I think every citizen should pay federal taxes. How differently they would vote if they are deciding with their money instead of someone else's.

[Lawrence Bullock]

01:03 PM on 01/17/2012

I think people who don't pay taxes should be in jail unless they get jobs. If they don't get jobs while in jail they should not be able to eat, either. They should have to register as "wealth offenders" and have to wear big dollar signs with a slash across them so they can be punished even further. And they should be sterilized.

[goldfox]

01:40 PM on 01/17/2012

How do you get a job if you are in jail? And where are all these jobs anyway? Not in the US. Seems we already have 15,000,000 folks looking for work. Got any sane ideas?

[janetislight]

01:47 PM on 01/17/2012

Ok braniac, those that DO have jobs, but are below the poverty level should be jailed. My 84 year old father on very low SSI should be jailed. You DO realize that right now there are 25 jobs for every 100 unemployed persons. And the majority of these jobs are part-time and NOT living wages. Oh and the sterilization part. You a fan of Hi. tler, because he had the same notions about those he found inferior.

[jimdavis11]

12:56 PM on 01/17/2012

American middle class voters, why would you vote Republican when they don't represent your interest and pose such a threat to middle class Americans!

[miahurley]

01:05 PM on 01/17/2012

Because I believe they do represent us. I am a middle class small business owner and Obama has just about destroyed us. Our best years were under Bush and other Republicans. Small businesses are the backbone of our jobs and our nation.

[JayInSea]

01:21 PM on 01/17/2012

Oh do tell! You must be an unusual SBO (or be one of those under $5b net/yr as defined by the Bush admin) as all of the SBOs in my neighborhood have gotten a couple breaks from Obama.

The real kicker is tho that demand from local patrons is rising which is far more crucial to their bottom line than the tax rate that applies to $1m plus biz. (which oddly enough *hasn't* risen under Obama. imagine that...)

[DocEagle]

01:24 PM on 01/17/2012

Your best years were under George Bush? You mean like 2008, when Bush's Treasury Secretary told Congress our entire financial system would collapse if they didn't provide a trillion-dollar bailout?

[Slickone]

01:36 PM on 01/17/2012

Political Stockholm_Syndrome.

[liftstation]

12:53 PM on 01/17/2012

If I can EVER find a lawyer who has any b??lls I want to file a suit againist the governor and attorney general of Florida.I am a convicted felon from 1990 for a theft crime. Since then I raised 3 children -- 13 grandchildren, caring for 2 sets of parents; and have taken over the family farm thereby PAYING high property taxes, and still I can't vote. 2 college degrees and accepted to 2 law schools and still I can't vote. Own or controll 58 acres with 1900 foot frontage for advertising on a major US highway in central florida and still I and still I can't vote. Have been to 3 attorneys and told for $75,000 I can get my civil rights back, money talks and pays people off. I LOVE this country I am a veteran but I sure HATE the people in power, or should I say those on the high horse. And still I can't vote

[Bgrngod]

02:05 PM on 01/17/2012

Federal law does not prevent states from having voter restrictions in place for people convicted of felons. Meaning, it actually isn't a civil right of yours any longer. Specifically, the 14th amendment actually takes away those rights for those convicted of felonies, which means states can make those decisions on their own. I am guessing you already know this though.

Most likely, a lawyer telling you they could do it for $75,000 is full of crud (Of course, they may have told you this between 2007 and Rick Scott's 2011 actions). You'd have to get the law changed in your state to allow felons to vote again. Florida is the harshest state in the country on this front.

Getting this done at the federal level would require a change to the constitution, which is highly unlikely to happen.

Fortunately, we are seeing a popular trend across the country to protect former criminals from discrimination at various levels. Specifically, when it comes to getting a job, they are getting more and more protections from state to state. Hopefully this will extend to restoring the right to vote too.

[Talk2PassiveActionVital]

12:44 PM on 01/17/2012

Though I disagree thoroughly with many of santorum's policy positions, I agree entirely with his support for restoring the voting rights of prisoners who have served their time. santorum is also a strong advocate of protecting American citizens from "indefinite detention" by the US military (regardless of pretext) thus restoring "habeas corpus" to American law, where it has resided since the establishment of the US Constitution as the basis for this country.

[Slickone]

01:01 PM on 01/17/2012

Maybe they will someday restore due process, and guarantee all offenses a DEFENSE as well.

[PFL1982]

12:43 PM on 01/17/2012

Republicans hate when non-white, poor people vote. Look at the systematic attempts to disenfranchise voters with ID laws and not willing voting rights after felons have completed their sentences.

[GEevendale]

12:33 PM on 01/17/2012

"It was the 1 armed man."

[clearthinker16]

01:33 PM on 01/17/2012

forgot about that, LOL

[prosymom]

12:33 PM on 01/17/2012

we can thank Jimmy Carter for pushing for incarcerated felons getting the right to vote...prior to that, incarcerated felons lost their citizenship rights, retaining only human rights...

[Talk2PassiveActionVital]

12:36 PM on 01/17/2012

...and now, thanks to the National Defense Reauthorization Act, those human rights are on their way out in the United States.

[Leigh49]

12:32 PM on 01/17/2012

If you've paid your dues to society, then your voting rights should be restored.

[Madbunny]

12:27 PM on 01/17/2012

Everybody likes to pretend that they're tough on crime, but they forget that talking about crime means talking about people. Citizens.

[gafl3]

12:59 PM on 01/17/2012

you mean mopes, don't you?

[Madbunny]

03:40 PM on 01/17/2012

No. I mean Citizens.

I'm not inclined to buy in to the whole 'this or that particular group is more oppressed than another. It's a distraction.