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Allowing prisoners to vote: let’s think this through

So democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to give all prisoners the right to vote. He said so during a recent campaign speech, much to the surprise of many. I was among them.

Sanders believes that “the right to vote is inherent to our democracy” and even “terrible people” like the Boston Marathon bomber should be allowed to participate. No other democratic candidate has gotten behind this idea, although several have said they support returning the right to vote to convicts after their release.

It is up to individual states to decide who can and cannot vote. In some states, convicted felons are never allowed to vote again. Other states require the newly released ex-con to apply for reinstatement to the voting rolls. Some make the applicant wait until after probation and/or parole is complete. Currently, only two states allow felons to cast ballots from behind bars: Sanders’ home state, Vermont, and the neighboring state Maine.

Am I the only one who sees a potential risk in Sanders’ idea? Let’s think this through by looking at the federal prison system as a snapshot. Currently, more than 45 percent of those incarcerated, in excess of 76,000 inmates, are held on drug-related crimes. If they were suddenly given the right to vote, would they be casting a ballot for the betterment of the country or in their own criminal self-interest? Don’t you think it would be likely that they would vote for the candidate they perceive as being softest on drugs, and maybe soft on crime in general? More than 18 percent of federal inmates, more than 31,000, were convicted on gun, explosive or arson charges. Wouldn’t it stand to reason they would vote for candidates who campaigned against more gun laws? Is this really what we want?

I think when someone is convicted of breaking the law of the land, they cannot be trusted to vote for those who make the laws of the land. And besides that, think about the logistics involved in allowing incarcerated persons to vote. How would it work to accommodate the more-than-2 million people who now reside in federal, state, local, military and Indian Country lockups? (To be accurate, the majority of people held in local jails at any given time has not yet gone to trial, so they might still be able to vote via absentee ballot.) It would be inconceivable to haul voting machines in and out of all the nation’s jails and prisons. So, a monumental and costly process would have to be designed to get the right ballot to the right inmate at the right time.

Would convicts get to vote in state contests where they last held residency, or in the state in which they are incarcerated? And how would they educate themselves on what the candidates stand for? Will political parties be allowed to send lobbyists into prisons to stump for their candidates? And, finally, if the inmate has been convicted of crimes against the state or espionage against the nation, should they still be allowed to participate in our most sacred civil exercise?

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