Should Inmates Vote? Bernie Sanders Says Yes

April 22 of 2020 Bernie Sanders was asked his beliefs on allowing inmates to vote. His response? “I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy. Yes even for terrible people because once you start chipping away... you're running down a slippery slope.” That’s right folks, Bernie Sanders supports letting all inmates vote. He even clarified that he wanted to let Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev vote although he had been sentenced to death. Vice President Mike Pence responded shortly thereafter with his own opinion by saying, “violent convicted felons, murderers and terrorists should never be given the right to vote in prison. Not now, not ever.”

Allowing prisoners to vote is something that isn’t necessarily associated with one party or another; democrats or republicans don’t generally support or oppose allowing inmates to vote as there’s people who feel both ways on either side. Currently two states allow voting while incarcerated -these being Maine and Vermont- and a number of others permit voting after prisoners have been released. The chart below shows the limitations each state has on letting prisoners vote.

In my opinion inmates should not be permitted to vote. I think people in prison forfeit their rights -including the right to vote- when they impeded the rights of others. They’ve been placed in prison because they decided to do something they knew was wrong, so why should these people be allowed to make decisions for our future if they didn’t make wise decisions for themselves?

Illinois leans liberal in felon voting laws | The Daily Illini

 

My sources are npr.org and motherjones.com.

 

Do you support letting prisoners vote? If so, which crimes can people commit and still be allowed to vote?

I don’t think that anyone in prison should be allowed to vote, even the smallest of crimes that will get you put in jail. 

 

Did you know Bernie Sanders supported letting inmates vote? If you were a Bernie Sanders fan would you still be a fan if you knew this?

I don't know enough about Bernie Sanders to have supported him, although what I do know about him -including his view on letting prisoners vote- I don't think I would support him.

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  • Great job Emma! +10

  • I believe that it depends on the crime and the ammount of years that they are serving. For example if an inmate is only serving two years he will have to go out in the world while the president that he didn't choose is running it. Now if its a man that has a life senetence or a death sentence their future is not at stake anymore there is nothing that can be changed , so I don't beleive that those persons should get the right to vote. 

    • Paola, I didn't think about it like this. "..he will have to go out in the world while the president he didn't choose is running it." That's totally true and I hadn't even considered this. Although you have a very valid point, that they should probably be able to decide the future they'll have to live with, I think that people should still not be allowed to vote until at least after their parole. At that point their life is at least getting on the right track again and they can be trusted to help make decisions for the entire country.

  • I don't think prisoners should be able to vote. Like you said, they lost their rights as a concequence. If this is something that happens in the future, I could see people who commited minor crimes being able to vote, although I don't agree with it. However, people who are in there for life or on death row should not be given this right back. That's just outrageous. People who will be back out in society will care about what President makes it in office, even just for their sake, but I feel like someone locked up for life would just choose the candidate who had the best offers for inmates. I'm not saying all would do this, but I could see a great many doing so, and then rules on prison would be a huge selling point for candidates in future elections. 

  • i dont think that they should be able to vote since they broke the law and cant follow the rules so why in the wolrd should they be able to vote they lost there chance and now people want them to be able to vote like why though. if i was a bernie fan i wouldnt stand with him on this thing because its kinda dumb.

  • I certainly do not support allowing prisoners to vote during the election. I think that the most moral people of the United States should be the ones that are able to vote for the next leader of our country, not the ones that have committed criminal acts. I did not know that Bernie Sanders supported allowing inmates to vote. This makes me question his morals and ideas as a candidate who ran for president. 

  • No, a prisoner should not have the right to vote, because it would be way too hard to decice what crimes get to votea nd what crimes don't get to vote. I think that the prisoners already lost their shot at having a right to vote by breaking the law, so they should not get that right back until they get out of prison.

    • I understand where you're coming from Vanessa, and I totally agree with you. Anything that gets you into jail is something everyone knows is wrong to do, and still the person made the choice to do the crime. Not being able to vote is part of the consequences of doing so.

  • I don't think that prisoners should be allowed to vote in elections. I did not know that Bernie Sanders was a supporter of letting inmates vote. I was not a fan of Bernie Sanders and I would still not be a fan of Bernie Sanders after finding this about his campaign.  

    • I agree Cameron, I don't know much about Bernie Sanders but what little I do know I don't agree with. This topic in itself -letting all prisoners vote- is enough to make me shy away from supporting him. Again, I don't know much about him, but probably enough to decide I'm not a fan.

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