The feeling of allowing felons to vote is chilling; those who have been in prison have committed crimes and want to claim their rights. But it is clear that criminals should be “disenfranchised because they have broken laws,” says Edward Feser, a philosophy professor and writer. Yet people still question whether it is moral to prevent felons from gaining the right to vote. Disenfranchising criminals is unintentional in racial issues and is used to punish them to teach them that once they have broken the laws, they have also lost the right to vote and would also prevent criminals from violating the voting rights of fellow citizens. The Washington Times, a well-known and widely read newspaper, wrote an article “Fed Judges: Criminals Should Get the Vote.” In this article, the authors argued that felons should have the right to vote. They had argued that the reason felons were denied the right to vote was because the disenfranchisement was “intended to discriminate against minorities.” On the other hand, disenfranchising criminals was never the intention of lawmakers, but there may have been a disproportionate impact on some racial groups because there are more minorities in prison than other races. The Los Angeles Times, another well-known and widely read newspaper, argued in its article “Criminals Have Lost the Right to Vote” that “at any given time there will always be some groups that commit more crimes than others, but that doesn't make it racist laws, just as the fact that more crimes are committed by men does not make criminal laws sexist. The fact that more men than women commit crimes does not mean that our laws are sexist, it simply means that because of cr...... middle of paper...... June 2010. Web. 16 January 2012.articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/13/opinion/la-oe-browne-felonvote-20100613>.Feser, Edward. “Criminals should not be allowed to vote.” Democracy. Mike Wilson, ed. OpfacingViewpoints® Series. Greenhaven Press, 2006. Edward Feser, “Should Criminals Vote?” CityJournal, Spring 2005. Copyright © 2005 by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Reproduced with permission. Wadley, Jared. “Panel: Ex-Felons Should Be Allowed to Vote.” January 9, 2012 | The online university register. January 24, 2004. Web. January 16, 2012.12.shtml>.Times Wednesday, The Washington. “Fed Judges: Criminals Should Get the Vote – Washington Times.” Washington Times - Politics, breaking news, US and world news. January 6, 2010. Web. January 16, 2012. vote/>.