Should people with felony convictions automatically regain voting rights after serving their sentences?

Maine and Vermont let people vote from prison, and neither state has suffered an election-integrity meltdown. That matters because the strongest argument against restoration is usually a vague fear that voting somehow cheapens punishment, yet the two states that go furthest have the least drama. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2005 that blanket bans on prisoner voting violate basic rights, and most European democracies allow it with no visible harm to public safety or the seriousness of sentences. We already count incarcerated people in the census for purposes of political representation, so we are happy to use their bodies for apportionment while denying them a voice. Drawing the line at the ballot box is a choice, not a necessity, and the evidence from the states and countries that chose differently is reassuringly boring.