Millions of people in the United States do not have the right to vote because they committed a crime in their past, which confirms that in America, the cradle of democracy, there is a lack of the same. Another scary fact is that amongst those millions, 85% of them are African-American.

Whilst hundreds of thousands of new voters appear in polls, changing the lethargy of the voting population, there are 5.3 million Americans that are simply missing from all of the lists, which denies them of their democratic right.

Maine and Vermont gave up the absurd law

Of those millions of people, four of them are not in prison, but are working and paying taxes as well as raising a family. However they can not attend the elections. This law has been affecting some people for decades, and nobody wants to change anything. It is shocking to learn that 85 percent of them are African-Americans, writes Alternet.

However, the same law does not work the same in all states. For example, Maine and Vermont allow their citizens to vote, whether they be in jail, free, or have a record. Columbia and 13 other states allow all of those who are not in jail to vote, 20 of them do not allow those in jail and on conditional sentences to vote, ten permanently ban the right to vote for all who have committed the most serious crimes, and only Kentucky and Virginia have banned voting for all of those that have a criminal record, except is they get written permission from the governor.

This is a great blow for democracy; this can be seen from when a similar law was brought. Abraham Lincoln banned slavery in 1863 and changed the constitution, and gave African-Americans the right to vote. However the democrats from the south did not want to accept this, so they brought laws that would remove their right to vote. Up until 30 years ago, African-Americans were banned from voting for various reasons.

- The difference between that law and this one, to people that have paid their debt to society, is non-existent – claim various American associations for civil rights. They added that it is sad that the racist law that affects African-Americans exists and that they still can not attend the elections.

Republicans benefit from elections without African-Americans

The consequences of a law that is passed on from generation to generation is that 13 percent of African-Americans do not have the right to vote, which means that of the 5.3 million that can not vote, 4,550,000 of them are African-Americans, of which 3.5 million are free and regularly pay their taxes.

It is also frightening that some African-Americans have not had the right to vote for 40 years, because during the time of racist segregation, they entered a restaurant, bus or club that was intended for white people. Charges were brought against them, they were evidenced, and they have not had the right to vote for several decades.

As things are now, this law gives benefits to the Republicans, who have won their last two mandates by stopping citizens from voting. The brother of the current US president George W. Bush, Jeb, brought this discriminating law in at the last minute in Florida, which meant that 22 thousand African-Americans did not have the right to vote at the elections.

This fact would not be so frightening if the African-Americans were not mainly Democrats, and that Florida did not decide the presidential race twice. Even more shocking is the fact that both times, it all came down to a few hundred votes.

The USA does not want an African-American president

It is unclear why the democrats do not change these laws, and allow the states to choose for themselves, which leads to a situation where there is no democracy, in a country that is considered to be the cradle of modern democracy. An interesting theory by African-American intellectuals is that by stopping African-Americans from voting is a way of stopping an African-American candidate from winning the presidential elections.

It is very important for human freedoms and democracy that at least those people who are not in prison should be allowed to vote, because they are fulfilling all of their responsibilities as citizens, and the country should allow them to choose the person that will decide how much taxes they will pay, what schools their children will attend, and the people that will change the future for their children.