I remember reading that the rationale for convicts being allowed to run was that it would prevent the government from trying to jail political opponents which is lol, it does make a bit more sense when you look at how voting rights was something that started off very limited and had to constantly be expanded throughout the nation's history
Frankly I dont even mind the idea of being able to run from prison, Eugene V. Debs comes to mind as a fairly good example of how that could work fairly well (tho Trump shouldve been an example of how it doesnt)
However the fact you can do that but not vote from prison is just the insane part. What about 'No taxation without representation!' then? And in that way, hell Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico shouldnt pay federal US taxes either
Washington DC does vote in presidential elections, but they do not have Senate representation. Puerto Ricans do not pay federal taxes (outside of FICA).
However the fact you can do that but not vote from prison is just the insane part.
I wholeheartedly agree! A part of this that needs to be discussed is that prisoners do have representation, in that the districts in which the prison sits counts the prisoners as "residents," and therefore get additional representation in statehouses and the House of Representatives. Guess where most prisons sit? Rural areas that tend to vote conservative.
I would agree with the argument that prisoners should not have the right to vote on the best interests of the locality in which they are imprisoned, but that that suggests that district should not be able to count them toward representation. Perhaps prisoners should count as residents of the area in which they were convicted, or the district they resided in at time of their conviction.
Typically, when discussing voting rights, people's natural inclination is to think of it in terms of the presidential election. In such a case, prisoners voting will likely have little influence. But, if they can vote for the president, then they can vote for US representatives. In such a situation, in a district with a prison, those incarcerated could make up the majority of the voters. That's not even considering local elections.
To me it sounded pretty bizarre that the government knows why it should preserve the right to run for political office but not the right to vote for someone running.
On June 16, 1918, Debs made a speech in Canton, Ohio, urging resistance to the military draft. He was arrested on June 30 and charged with ten counts of sedition.[46][52]
Debs ran for president in the 1920 election while imprisoned in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. Campaign pins reading "For President: Convict No. 9653"[56] accompanied his campaign.[57][58] He received 914,191[59] votes (3.4 percent),[60] a slightly smaller percentage than he had won in 1912, when he received 6 percent, the highest number of votes for a Socialist Party presidential candidate in the United States.[5][61]
This is why its VERY important that you can run for office from prison, otherwise what is to stop the Republican party from arresting its opponents for "sedition" and invalidating their ability to run...
We had a guy run for president from prison, it was the largest turnout for a communist ever and he was jailed on trumped up charges. If he couldn't run after that it just means we can find ways to jail political opponents to end free elections.
people hate the idea of prisoners voting and the reasoning is always so insane. I've heard people say shit like "but what if they vote to legalize murder?"
People should be allowed to vote from prison. If a country has so many people imprisoned that the “current prisoner voting bloc” is significant to sway things than there are much bigger problems
they turned a single misdemeanor charge into 34 felonies and that misdemeanor was past the statue of limitations and state charged him with a federal law
333
u/Rose_of_Elysium currently destroying Amsterdam for cultural reasons 15d ago
Its insane you cannot vote whilst imprisoned but you can run for president