Relatedly, there was a ballot initiative in North Carolina to amend the NC Constitution to deny anyone ever convicted of any felony the ability to run for sheriff.

So much for having paid your debt to society.

It passed something like 85-15.

This is why we need to not have hoi polloi making legislation. It's just reactionism. I'm sure that most of those people got to the poll and saw that for the first time, and said, "Yeah, we don' need no crimmunuls as shurrif," thus denying people who were once convicted of or pled no-contest to, for example, pointing a laser at an airplane are no longer eligible to run for sheriff.