Why Criminals’ Voting Power Is an Issue in the 2020 Presidential Election
This week, Bernie Sanders became the first 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to speak out in support of criminals’ right to vote, sparking massive debate among other candidates intervening in the crucial issue.
“You pay the price, you have committed a crime, you are in jail,” Sanders said during a City Hall meeting in Iowa on the matter. “Bad. But you still live in American society and have the right to vote. I believe that, yes, I do.”
Meanwhile, candidates Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren opposed Sanders’ position; Buttigieg stated that he did not support the voting rights of criminals in custody, while Warren was more succinct in his response: “ I’m not there yet. “
What exactly is the debate about?
The debate revolves around the right to vote for prisoners; currently, only two states, Maine and Vermont (Sanders’ home state), allow criminals to vote behind bars.
For context, here’s how the rest of the states exercise their prisoner voting rights, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures :
- In 14 states, including Hawaii, Massachusetts and Utah (outside of the District of Columbia), criminals lose their right to vote only in custody but are reinstated after incarceration.
- In 22 states, including New Jersey and Texas, criminals lose their right to vote while in custody, usually on parole or parole, and then restored to vote. However, they may have to pay fees or fines before they can vote again.
- In 12 states, including Alabama and Arizona, criminals lose their right to vote indefinitely for certain crimes, and their right can only be restored if pardoned.
Overall, this means that around 48 states strip prisoners of their voting rights at some point. According to the draft sentences , this also means that 6.1 million people in our country cannot vote because they are in prison.
And there are a number of other things to consider with regard to prisoners’ rights, in particular the issue of race and racial bias in the criminal justice system. Despite the fact that they make up 37% of the US population, people of color make up 67% of prisoners. A number of rights groups argue that certain minorities, such as blacks, are far more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana than whites, contributing to an unequal justice system that punishes some more than others. (The United States also holds more people than any other country in the world, in part due to an increase in drug-related arrests.)
There are also about 465,000 alleged innocent people in the justice system at any given time who cannot afford bail, which means that their right to vote is also at risk, in addition to those acquitted of wrongful sentences, GQ writes. …
Why are there so many candidates discussing this issue right now?
Only Sanders and candidate Pete Buttigig have 100% expressed their opinion on the criminals’ voting power. Buttigieg opposed inmates’ right to vote while incarcerated during CNN’s mayor’s office with Anderson Cooper.
“Part of the punishment, when you are convicted of a crime and imprisoned, you lose certain rights,” he said. “You are losing freedom. And I think that during this period it makes no sense to make an exception for the right to vote. “
Currently, however, most candidates remain rather vague on this issue, probably because Sanders faces criticism of his opinion.
Kamala Harris and Beto O’Rourke have expressed vague intentions to “rethink” or “talk” about perpetrators. ” Warren disagreed somewhat with Bernie in her brief statement. Meanwhile, Trump has long campaigned against criminals’ voting rights. Either way, this issue will become serious as 2020 approaches, and you can expect candidates to speak out soon as Sanders’ stance has forced them to act.
What’s the worst that could happen if they couldn’t vote?
Well, you might argue that we’ve already seen this in practice. In 2000, George W. Bush received 25 electoral votes in Florida, which allowed him to defeat Al Gore. As Quartz reported in connection with the sentencing project, some 827,000 prisoners and felons did not receive the right to vote this year in Florida; Researchers at the Sentencing Project estimate that approximately 68.7% of prisoners would vote Democratic.
If just over a quarter of this group voted – 27.2%, to be precise – it would have easily ensured Gore’s presidency (even 13.1% of the turnout could even have ensured his election). Florida has since restored the right to vote to criminals after parole or parole who have not been convicted of murder or sex felony.
In other words, we could be living in a completely different world right now if they were given the right to vote from the beginning.