In nearly all of the U.S., nonviolent, victimless felons are denied the right to vote. Drug offenders go to prison, are stripped of their guns, and then get their right to vote stripped. One of Nixon's advisors came out saying this was the point of the drug war - to imprison, disenfranchise, and disrupt the anti-war activists and black communities. Although I think democracy is a bad way to run and maintain a free society, it's what we've got to deal with. Voting absolutely has to be guaranteed for every citizen of a country, and under no circumstances should voting be taken away. There's too much potential for abuse of that power, as we've seen with the success of the culture-targeting legislation and enforcement behind the war on drugs. This is why we need to recognize that our rights are fundamental, and that any denial of rights outside of compensating victims for crimes, is dangerous as well as morally wrong. In other words, we cannot let a government "grant" us our rights.