Iowa is considering opening up voting to convicted felons who have completed their jail terms. But at a stop in Muscatine, Iowa on Saturday, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders took the policy one step further, demanding that felons be allowed to vote while serving their time in prison.
The Des Moines Register reports that the Vermont independent, who is running as the most progressive candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, suggested that prisoners should be allowed to vote from behind bars — a step further than Iowa seems willing to go.
“I think that is absolutely the direction we should go,” Sanders told the audience at Muscatine’s West Middle School.
The Register reports that Sanders’ home state of Vermont, and neighboring state, Maine, allow convicted felons to vote while they serve their prison sentences — the only two states in the country who recognize that right. Around 14 other states have done away with the idea that those who have committed serious and often violent crimes should be permanently barred from casting a ballot. – READ MORE