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
My whole point is that this doesn’t matter unless the prison population is high enough. . .and if it’s so high that this is actually a large enough to actually really sway a politician, then that almost certainly means there is something wrong with the system that is imprisoning so many people. It’s like my point was just completely ignored.
Going from “they should retain the right to vote” to “no laws at all” is the most mindless logical jump I’ve heard in a bit. Well, not quite, I was recently arguing with someone who actually argued that someone who says “I don’t support Trump or Biden” means they are actually a Trump supporter and just lying when they say they don’t support Trump. That was dumber, but your jump is pretty close to that.