Last night I was chatting with some friends about the recent conviction of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens on seven counts of violating ethics charges. All counts are felony charges. In Alaska, a felon is not allowed to cast a ballot. So I started to wonder, will Ted Stevens, in his determination to continue his campaign for re-election despite the conviction, even be allowed to vote for himself?

I came across this great post on Huffington Post by Shayana Kadidal, which breaks down the specifics of the Alaska law to try to figure out whether or not Stevens will be entering a voting booth on Tuesday. As of yesterday, according to the AP, the jury was still out. But two hours ago, Slate posted this story, reporting that:

In a decision released Wednesday night, the Alaska Division of Elections announced that the senator’s crimes were, in fact, of moral turpitude but that a guilty verdict wasn’t enough to make him a convicted felon for purposes of voting. Until February, when he’s sentenced—and thus “convicted,” according to a more formal definition—he’ll be able to exercise his right to vote.

The bigger question here is: why is the U.S. behind the rest of the world on the question of felon disenfranchisement? The only three places in the developed world where a felon permanently loses his/her right to vote are Virginia, Kentucky, and Armenia! In Alaska, and 45 other states in the Union, most felons regain their right to vote after completing their sentence (including probation and parole in many states), but there are still currently a total of 5 million citizens disenfranchised due to a felony conviction. Only in Vermont and Maine can a felon vote from prison. (See this article about how voting interest is up in Vermont prisons this year.)

My second question: would all convicted felons be given the same legal benefit of the doubt as to their voting eligibility that Senator Stevens has been given? I would hope so.

takepart Sign up for a newsletter and get involved with the Right to Vote campaign, which works to restore felon voting rights.