The root of disfranchisement can be traced back to Greek and Roman laws. Where any person convicted of an infamous crime would lose the right to participate in the polis. In Rome they would lose the right to participate in the suffrage and to serve in the Roman legions. With the founding of the United States of America, the U.S. Constitution gave states the right to establish voting laws. From 1776 to 1821 eleven states included disfranchisement in their laws (Voter Registration Protection Act). By 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment was enacted, eighteen states had adopted disfranchisement laws. After the crime of the Civil War, disenfranchisement laws were used along with poll taxes and literary tests to exclude African Americans from voting. The right to vote is considered one of the fundamental rights of citizenship in the United States. This right goes far beyond the simple right to write down a piece of paper and throw it in a box or the right to pull a lever in a voting booth. The right to vote includes the right to have a ballot counted as a legal voting citizen. Although this right is considered fundamental, restrictions have been imposed on this right. The main restriction is placed on people convicted of a crime: all crimes, not just infamous ones. Today, on Election Day, as Americans wait in line to cast their votes, more than 4.65 million people are denied this fundamental democratic right due to a past or present crime conviction. It is true that some criminals may make bad judgments that are defiant and rebellious and the basis for further danger. In fact, statistics show that the number of times prisoners were arrested was the best indicator of whether they would commit more crimes… halfway through the paper… counted. Work Cited''Advocacy Toolkit ''Standards for hiring people with criminal records .11 Mar.2010''Legal Affairs'' http://www.legalaffairs.org/webexclusive/debateclub_disenfranchisement1104.msp''Locked Out'' Felon Desenfranchisement and American Democracy .11 Mar.2010Prison Segregation and Felon Disenfranchisement, salary caps, or tenure restrictions or bans for convicted felons. March 3, 2010 United States Department of Justice - Bureau of Justice Statistics http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/Voter Registration Protection Act. March 11, 2010 http:// www.time.com/time/nation/article/ 0.8599.1553510.00.html#ixzz0iOMFvwUW