Felons and Cruel and Unusual Punishment

In the 2018 mid-term elections, Floridians voted for an amendment to their Constitution returning the right to vote to felons who have served their sentence. I do not recall the argument proposed to allow felons to regain their right.

 I suspect, though, that an argument could be advanced that depriving a felon who had served their sentence was a form of cruel and unusual punishment, because to do so would be a continuation of their punishment after their sentence has been completed, or perhaps an infliction of a punishment that is not part of the penal code.

Taking away a person's right to vote has somehow been made part of the punishment for committing a felony, and while a person who has served time for that felony has had some their rights restored -- prohibition from owning a gun may be another lost right -- their right to vote has not been restored, then in that respect, they are serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Losing the right to vote, of course, means that that person no longer has a say about the laws that govern and affect their life and the lives of others. If the passage of a law hangs on that person's one vote, and if that law would deprive that person of their life, liberty, property or dignity, then the person not having that vote would be deprived the of these rights without the due process of first voting for or against that law.