To Vote

BoingBoing has a post that links up a bunch of online voter information pages that are being created for the upcoming election.

I'm all registered and ready to go for November 2nd, but I figured I'd take a look anyway, and ended up following a link to a couple of DoJ pages about restoring your right to vote. That'd be if you've lost your right to vote, of course. I've always been curious about the whole Felons-can't-Vote thing, what with the shenanigans that have been going on in Florida (both in 2000 and more recently -- Eek) and the voter referendum that passed here in Massachusetts a few years ago.

So here's what I learned from the Massachusetts page:

1. Voting rights are determined by the state you vote in.
2. In Massachusetts, because of the referendum, your right to vote is only affected if you are currently incarcerated for a felony. (This still sucks for you if you've been sentenced to a long term; even moreso if it was for a bullshit law in the first place. Think: Patriot Act, and the possibility of being incarcerated because you checked the wrong thing out of the library.)

With regards to point 1, it seems really F'ed up that a state can decide who can vote in federal elections. I understand that it's the state's right to determine how its representatives are selected, but it seems wrong that a state can effectively decide that some arbitrary (or not so arbitrary) group of people can't vote for their "representatives" and leaders.

It seems like it shouldn't be something that would be abused or called into question, but then I think about things like Jim Crow or the Japanese internment during World War II. And I recognize that those things are in the past and feel like we've moved forward since then. But then hearing about the possibility of the indefinite detention of detainees at Guantanamo Bay (even as non-U.S. citizens) doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

UPDATE: And I also forgot to mention the number of states that are currently attempting to write discrimination into their respective lawbooks and state constitutions (or have already succeeded) over the issue of gay marriage. (apparently the numbers are: 43 with laws on the books, 5 added or stregthened legislative statutes of the 16 that debated the issue, 4 already in the state constitution, 31 up for constitutional amendment)