Bernie Sanders Pushes for Voting Rights To Be Returned to Felons Behind Bars
Even while criminals are doing time for felonies, they should be able to vote in an election, according to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The Vermont independent made his call for giving those behind bars the right to vote during a Saturday town hall meeting in Muscatine, Iowa.
“I think that is absolutely the direction we should go,” he said.
Vermont and Maine are the only states that currently allow felons to vote from their cells.
“In my state, what we do is separate. You’re paying a price, you committed a crime, you’re in jail. That’s bad,” Sanders said, according to the Des Moines Register.
“But you’re still living in American society and you have a right to vote. I believe in that, yes, I do,” he said.
The concept touched off debate on Twitter.
Perfect combo of mental illness, communist, & desperation. No other way to win than to let rapists & carjackers & murderers & pedophiles vote. https://t.co/PhO1nQir4D
— Wayne Allyn Root (@RealWayneRoot) April 7, 2019
Today @BernieSanders became the first presidential candidate to say that EVERY American, including ALL people in prison or out of prison deserve the right to vote.
I agree. And if you didn’t already know this, his home state of Vermont already allows ithttps://t.co/j5Lkzqbx4n
— Shaun King (@shaunking) April 7, 2019
No. Every aspect of an inmates life is controlled. Who ever pays off warden will get the votes they desire. Inmates will be bullied to vote a certain way and pretty sure we know which way too. https://t.co/13mEVJP35R
— Joe Biggs (@Rambobiggs) April 7, 2019
Other Democratic candidates in Iowa were asked about the issue. The issue has been big in Iowa ever since Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds wanted to overturn the current law that bars felons from being allowed to vote upon their release. The effort fizzled recently when GOP lawmakers refused to support the plan.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said she fully supports giving felons their right to vote back once they have served their time.
As for Sanders’s proposal, she was non-committal.
“While they’re incarcerated, I think that’s something we can have more conversation about,” she said.
Thirty-six states restore voting rights to felons after they finish their sentences, with some ensuring that fines or penalties are paid first. Kentucky is currently the only other state, along with Iowa, where felons are by law barred from voting after they are released from prison or jail.
The Republican National Committee said that the proposed policy to let felons vote from jail is rooted in Democratic efforts to find new pools of voters that will vote for Democrats, Fox News reported.
“From suggesting that illegal immigrants should be able to vote, to trying to lower the voting age to 16, to now proposing convicted felons behind bars should be able to vote, Democrats are once again trying to rewrite the rules for their own political agenda. When they can’t win at the ballot box, Democrats instead try to rig the system in their favor,” RNC spokesperson Mandi Merritt said.
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