Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont submitted the legislation, named the Inclusive Democracy Act, on Tuesday which would guarantee the right to vote in federal elections for all citizens regardless of their criminal record.
In a statement, Pressley said the legislation was necessary due to policies and court rulings that “continue to disenfranchise voters from all walks of life — including by gutting the Voting Rights Act, gerrymandering, cuts to early voting, and more.” Welch called the bill necessary due to “antiquated state felony disenfranchisement laws.”
In late 2022, approximately 4.6 million people were unable to vote due to a felony conviction, according to a study by the Sentencing Project, a nonpartisan research group. The same study found that Black and Hispanic citizens are disproportionately likely to be disenfranchised due to felony
I’m fine with incarcerated felons not voting. But they should have a pathway to voting when they’re released. Maybe immediately upon release, or after probation. Something.
Let them vote in prison too!
They actually have the time to get politically informed.
Esp. because if you have enough people in prison that the results of elections would regularly depend on their votes your main problem is not prisoners voting or not, its having too many prisoners.
Convicted of drug crime? Should never lose right to vote.
Convicted of violent crime? Should regain right to vote upon release.
Convicted of trying to overturn an election? Never get to vote again.
They should all be able to vote. From prison, too. The punishment never needs to be to take their voting rights away. If they commit fraud, stop them from committing fraud again.
I’d prefer compulsory voting from all able people of voting age. Prisons should have full in-person voting locations with private voting booths. Mail-in ballots should be a freely available option for all.
It doesn’t guarantee good results, but I feel it is the most straightforward way to rid ourselves of voter suppression campaigns, which I think are fundamentally evil.
What’s the punishment for failing to vote? It would just end up being a poor tax.
It’s not much of a tax when it can be “paid” by sending a piece of paper through the mail, postage-paid.
Australia does this. It works out very well.
Hey, you’re talking to the country that has you actively apply to get a right to vote. The US is seemingly incapable of keeping track of their own citizens.
Give the IRS more funding and we will have little trouble keeping track of everyone.
Yeah, I just wrote another comment and noticed that the government probably has addresses because the IRS needs those to function.
I disagree with this approach without even touching the morality aspect.
There should be no way to lose your voting rights once you are of age and a citizen of the US for the very simple reason of limiting the bureaucratic overhead of elections. If every citizen above the age of 18 can vote, you can just completely remove the ridiculous notion of “voter registration”.
Just register everyone based on their legal address (which the government should have anyway because taxes). Just like a real democracy.
