Corrupts Elections' Validity
By: Sandra Feigley,
Cofounder
Peter Wagner,
a Massachusetts political activist, has been using his
organization,
to campaign for the proper counting of prisoners in the national census. Prisoners sentenced from urban centers are typically imprisoned in rural areas. The census counts the prisoners as if they were citizens of the rural districts. But the prisoners have no right to vote for whom will represent them. As a result, rural areas are given exaggerated representations in state and federal legislatures. Rural areas generally have conservative white legislators who don't represent the best interest of the urban prisoners. The skewed census counts also mean that the rural areas receive federal and state aid money in a greater proportion than they actually deserve. Prisoners of the Census is trying to correct all that by having prisoners counted in the districts from which they were sentenced. The organization appears to be making progress in several states including New York state. Apparently state legislation can change the way in which the federal census is conducted. We urge ALL urban legislators to investigate ways for state legislation to insure that prisoners are counted in the urban areas from which they hail. The cities will finally get the representation they deserve by population.
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