Sen. Cassilly: “A Felon’s Vote Must be Considered as Secondary to Our Collective Interest in the Survival of the Republic”

From State Sen. Bob Cassilly:

Dear Friends and Neighbors: Below is a copy of words I delivered on the Senate floor today as the Senate voted to override Gov. Hogan’s veto of legislation passed last year, which I opposed as well, that restores voting rights to felons before completing their full sentences through parole or probation. I wanted to share these same words with you, my constituents. -Senator Cassilly

February 9, 2016

It’s interesting that our Governor is expending considerable political capital opposing a law that will allow felons to vote while they are still serving their sentence. There is the problem of those felons who after release will violate their parole or probation and then likely be voting from prison, but still; one might ask why the Governor would take such a strong political stand on this issue. I submit to you that Gov. Hogan’s veto of this Bill was not a political choice. Rather, it was a very unpolitical act. Governor Hogan’s hand in this matter was forced – compelled by his oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. That Constitution speaks of two critical responsibilities each of us assumes when we take the oath of office:

– To serve as the Guardians of Liberty
– To assure the survival of our Nation

As Marylanders, we can be proud that our State House stands in testament to each of those critical responsibilities. Our duty as guardians of Liberty is enshrined in the four portraits on the walls of the Senate chamber of Maryland’s signers of the Declaration of Independence, and our duty as guardians of the Republic is enshrined in the museum in the old senate chamber dedicated to George Washington’s resignation of his commission as Commander in Chief and the Continental Army. Washington, like Lincoln to follow, while both champions for Liberty stood above all else for the preservation of the Union. Nothing is more important to our national survival than the sanctity of our voting process.

The very legitimacy of our Republic hinges on our citizens’ respect for and confidence in the voting process. We enhance that respect when we remove from the voter rolls those who commit crimes that demonstrate a total disregard for the social compact that is our Constitution. And we undermine that respect when we put felons’ interesting in voting above the survival of the Republic.

A felon’s vote must be considered as secondary to our collective interest in the survival of the Republic. The felons who are the subject of this Bill have not paid their debt to society. To pretend otherwise suggests that we no longer see respect for our Nation’s laws as essential for our National survival. While that attitude might have followers in certain circles, it’s fatal to our long term National interests.

Those who laid down their lives to secure our Liberty for the past 240 years and those who will be called upon to do so in the future have and must put respect of our laws and the survival of the Nation above their own personal liberty. We denigrate those sacrifices when we put felons’ voting interests above the sanctity of the law and above the sanctity of the vote itself.

In short, we cannot expect the children of tomorrow to show the ultimate respect of our Nation that is required for them to lay down their lives to preserve our Country if we do not clearly demonstrate a commensurately high level of respect for our Nation’s laws. We must demonstrate a reverence for those laws that transcends the personal interests of those felons’ who seek to vote before they have paid the debt for the terrible crimes they have inflicted upon innocent and helpless people.

Sincerely,

Senator Robert Cassilly
Maryland Senate District 34
Harford County