Court Opinion

ID: 9696807
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:59:07.490418+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:18:49.724194
License: Public Domain

McGINLEY, Judge,
concurring and dissenting.
I concur in part to the majority’s conclusion: that “incarcerated felons are not *454qualified absentee electors”; that non-registered felons are not permitted to register to vote while incarcerated; and that Petitioner Williams does not have standing “to attack the statutory provisions that she challenges.” However, I respectfully dissent in part to the majority’s conclusion that “the prohibition against registration [of ex-incarcerated felons] for five years after release from confinement is constitutionally infirm....”1
In Richardson v. Ramirez, 418 U.S. 24, 94 S.Ct. 2655, 41 L.Ed.2d 551 (1974) the United States Supreme Court rejected an equal protection challenge to a California statute which denied the right to vote to convicted felons who completed their sentences and paroles as unconstitutional. Also, In Martin v. Haggerty, 120 Pa.Cmwlth. 134, 548 A.2d 871, 374 (1988) this Court observed that “the Court in Owens [v. Barnes, 711 F.2d 25 (3rd Cir.1983), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 963, 104 S.Ct. 400, 78 L.Ed.2d 341 (1983) ], noted that a state does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment if it chooses to disenfranchise all convicted felons.”
I believe the five-year prohibition contained in Section 501 of the Voter Registration Act does not unconstitutionally penalize a released felon based upon his unregistered status. Placing a five-year prohibition presents a rational relationship to a legitimate state interest. This legislative prohibition requires the felon to adhere to the rules of society for five years before he or she can register to vote. Because our federal and state courts have previously determined that the legislature has the statutory authority to totally deny a convicted felon the free exercise of the right to suffrage, Section 501 of the Voter Registration Act does not violate Article VII, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution and as such is constitutionally sound. Accordingly, I would sustain Respondent’s preliminary objections.
Judge FLAHERTY joins in this concurring and dissenting opinion.

. Section 501 of the Pennsylvania Voter Registration Act (Voter Registration Act), Act of June 30, 1995, 25 P.S. § 961.501 provides:
(a) Eligibility. — A qualified elector who will be at least 18 years of age on the day of the next election, who has been a citizen of the United States, who has been a citizen of the United States for at least one month prior to the next election and who has resided in this Commonwealth and the election district where the qualified elector offers to vote at least 30 days prior to the next ensuing election and has not been confined in a penal institution for a conviction of a felony within the last five years shall be entitled to be registered as provided in this chapter, (emphasis added).