Student Handout Number 7 “Right to vote?” Margie Hyslop   The Washington Times  Published 7/14/2002 Special Report “BALTIMORE    —  In  a  parking  lot  behind  a  tattered  strip  mall, dozens of felons milled out  —  fast- food bags and drinks in  hand   — waiting in 92 degree heat to rally. The day was symbolic, Marvin "Doc" Cheatham told the crowd of roughly 100, mostly black former drug abusers gathered behind the storefront    meeting    rooms    of    a    rehabilitation    and    job    training program. It was June 19, or Juneteenth: On that date in 1865, slaves in Texas learned President Lincoln had freed them two years earlier.   Felons  are  now  mobilizing  to  reclaim  liberties,  particularly  that fundamental element of political participation  —  the  right  to  vote, said  Mr.  Cheatham,  the  president  of  the  Baltimore  City  Board  of Elections and an advocate for restoring the vote to felons. "It's time for us to get up and stop waiting for people to give us something we can get ourselves," rally organizer Israel Cason told the crowd, which cheered in agreement. If efforts like theirs across the nation succeed, more of the 4 million felons would regain the right to vote. "There's  no  question  there's  a  good  deal  of  national  momentum toward reconsidering it," said Marc Maurer, a former social worker and  assistant  director  of  the  Sentencing  Project,  a  District-based national    organization    that    advocates    sentencing    reform    and researches criminal justice issues. Since January 2000, six states — through legislatures or courts  — have liberalized their restrictions on felon voting rights, and at least three others have moved toward it.