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Why Should Prisoners Be Allowed To Vote

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Prisoner goes to High Court to win right to vote
Kenneth Nguyen
April 25, 2007
Should prisoners be allowed to vote? Age readers decide.
A prisoner is bringing a High Court case that could secure a historic right to vote for 20,000 of Australia 's prisoners.
Vickie Lee Roach, currently being held in the Dame Phyllis Frost Women 's Prison at Deer Park, argues that Commonwealth Electoral Act provisions that bar prisoners from voting in federal elections are unconstitutional.
The broad ban, first proposed under former special minister of state Eric Abetz in 2005, was introduced by the Howard Government last year, as part of an electoral law package that also shortened the period in which people can enrol to vote (from seven days after the electoral writ is issued to three days) and introduced a requirement that people provide proof of identity when enrolling or …show more content…

Roach, 48, an Aborigine, is being aided by considerable legal muscle.
Those assisting her free of charge include silks Ron Merkel, QC, and Michael Pearce, SC, leading corporate law firm Allens Arthur Robinson and the non-profit Human Rights Law Resource Centre.
Roach, jailed for at least four years in 2004 for negligently causing serious injury in a car accident, recently completed a master 's degree in creative writing and is pursuing a doctorate.
"She 's personally very interested and committed to prisoners ' rights and political participation, and particularly the rights of indigenous people," Human Rights Law Resource Centre director Philip Lynch said.
He noted that Roach stood to lose thousands of dollars in costs if she lost her case against the Commonwealth.
In an application filed with the High Court, Roach 's legal team argues that the bar on prisoners voting is contrary to section 7 and 24 of the constitution, which provide that Parliament shall be "directly chosen by the people". Before the Howard Government 's amendments, only prisoners serving sentences of more than five years were barred from

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