as long as they didn't commit voter fraud, I'm all for it. if you went to prison for fucking with the election, I think you should lose your vote.
this post was submitted on 03 May 2024
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This isn't remotely unpopular among most people on the Fediverse I think.
They are allowed to vote in civilized countries.
What do you think of France, UK, Italy and China? Because a prisoners right to vote can be removed in those countries as well.
Whatabout the UK, France, and China?
The UK whose flailing neo-fascist government just passed a law allowing it to deport refugees to Rwanda? Whose government is about to experience a historic blowout at the polls? Whose government destroyed their economy by pulling them out of the EU to try to regain the glory of the empire? That UK?
France with is neoliberal government? Macaron had spent so much time attacking workers and their rights to steal from the rich and give to the poor that he's almost handed the counry to the fascist brownshirts of Marine Le Pen?
This Italy? ?
And China?
I believe I said, "civilized countries".
I'm very familiar with what aboutism, and that's not what I intended to do with my question.
This forum has many biases and I feel that for us to have an opinion on an issue it should be applied to all equitably and not just because the party someone hates does it.
I don't disagree with the topic, I just disagree with how you stated it.
In civilized countries every citizen has the right to vote and equal access to the ballot box. The US has neither of those things. I stand by what I said.
In France we treat our prisoners like utter shit. If they way you treat the people you have power over is an important marker of civilization/democracy (and I believe it is), we fail this test real hard.
That being said, the tribunal has to specifically add to the prison sentence an exclusion from the right to vote. Iirc, about 25k prisoners (among the 75 or 80k total) have been deprived from the right to vote during their sentence.
Voting from prison in France is complicated,there are 3 options afaik:
- you can delegate your vote to someone on the outside
- you can resquest a "day off" to go to the polls
- since 2019 you can vote by correspondance
The "can I please go out to vote" has to be approved by the warden, and dosen't happen much.
Delegating your vote isn't always easy either, prison has a tendancy to isolate people from their former close ones.
The correspondance vote is recent and seems like the best of the three. In 2017 (presidential electio ), less than 2% of imprisoned people had voted. In the 2022 presidential election, more than 20% of them did.
So far, voting logistics and the feeling that society doesn't want you has imo prevented far more people to vote than the "you can't vote for the next x years" addendum to sentences.
Ah yes, China, a well known bastion of civil liberties.
I should mention that I don't disagree with the post, I just wanted to highlight it isn't a US only issue
where in this thread does anyone say this is a us only issue?
How is China civilized?
Inventors of democracy and land of the free baby!
They just handing out babies where you are? That just doesn't seem responsible!
In many countries they do vote!
Restriction of personal freedom and restriction of citizen rights are two different forms of punishments, ideally useful in different circumstances. But I guess thiie US applies them jointly?
The US loves to disenfranchise prisoners and felons, because the US has carefully throughout its history jiggered the system so that black people are significantly more likely to wind up as prisoners and felons. Felon disenfranchisement became suspiciously popular among US states immediately following the Civil War. No points for guessing why.
The situation has improved somewhat recently, with many states (although most of them not in the deep south...) relaxing laws and allowing previously convicted people to have their voting rights restored either automatically or via some process. To my knowledge, however, only two states allow incarcerated people to vote: Maine and Vermont.
In Texas, incarcerated people can technically vote by mail. But they have to apply (and can't be felons)
I'll go one further, voting should be mandatory, punishable by a fine. The ballot should also have "none of the above" as an option.
I don’t know, I’m more of the opinion that everyone should do a competence test or something before they are even allowed to vote.
And if none of the above wins, the office should be left vacant for a term.
A random person will be chosen
That's worse.
That’s what you get for voting None
Most elected positions would be better served by a vacancy than those who typically hold them.
I'll bring my d20.
I like the theory, but the practice is that you can force people to vote but not to be informed. People can just show up and push the button on the top.
It also means you gotta decide what to do when every election is won by "none of the above".
None of the above is where you fill in a name
Can we at least make it so write in candidates don't have to pre register?
No! If None Of The Above wins the election, we simply go without a president for four years, and the parties think long and hard about how to find a candidate that's better than literal empty space
Based. Spoiling the ballot is also common but in this case, a "none" box would make sense too
Literaly brasil (also for prisioners voting)
Australia too, I believe.
I agree with this, except that the punishment should be a short stay in jail, like maybe as long as a week for repeat offenses. That way it serves as a deterent and being wealthy won't make it worth it.
That's a bit much. Maybe a day of community service? 🤣
That would actually be a whole lot better, yeah.
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