Bernie Sanders: Criminals should be able to vote in prison

Senator Bernie Sanders has long fought to restore the voting rights of criminals who have served their prison terms.

Now, the presidential candidate wants to take a big step forward – arguing that people currently in prison should also be able to vote.

FLORIDA PROPOSES TO RECORD THE ANCIENT FELONS

Asked Saturday on the election campaign in Muscatine, Iowa, if the detainees were to have the right to vote, the independent Vermont senator, who made his second consecutive candidacy for the Democratic candidacy, replied, "I think it's is absolutely the direction we should take. "

"In my country, what we do is separate, you pay a price, you have committed a crime, you are in prison, it is bad," explained Sanders. "But you still live in American society and you have the right to vote, I believe in that, yes."

SANDERS DISCHARGES ON TROMPE AT SHARPTON CONFERENCE

Vermont and Maine are the only states to allow criminals currently serving their sentence to vote.

The issue of voting rights of criminals is in the spotlight in Iowa, the state that votes first in the presidential caucus and the primary calendar. The Hawkeye State and Kentucky are the only two countries in the country to permanently ban the right to vote for all those who have been sentenced to vote.

Iowa GOP Governor Kim Reynolds is calling for an amendment to the Constitution to allow for the reinstatement of convicted prisoners once they have served their sentences. But last week, the Republican – controlled Senate torpedoed the plan, probably killing it for the year.

Sanders then wrote on Twitter: "This is a disappointing setback for voting rights in Iowa."

Voting rights in 36 states and the federal district of Columbia are reinstated for criminals once sentences have been served, with laws varying to include parole and probation.

The presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, was questioned about it a week ago, while the Massachusetts Democrat was campaigning in Iowa. She called on the criminals who served their sentences to have the right to vote. But she has stopped advocating that people actually imprisoned can vote.

"Although they are incarcerated, I think this is a subject on which we can have more discussion," she said.

FLORIDA LAUNCHES THE RESTORATION OF THE VOTING RIGHTS OF THE FELONS

Last November, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment reinstating the right to vote for the 1.4 million criminals who served their sentences. Florida was the most populous of the 10 states that permanently deprived some people of criminal convictions of their rights.

Last April, Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York signed a decree restoring the voting rights of parolees. And in 2016, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, Governor of Virginia at the time, took steps to restore the voting rights of former criminals.

Opponents of the authorization to vote of incarcerated people argue that if you do not want to abide by the law, you should not play a role in enacting the law for everyone, whether directly by voting on referendums and voting initiatives or indirectly by electing legislators.

They point out that the purpose of incarceration is to separate criminals from society.

The Republican National Committee said that democratic attempts to broaden the pool of voters favorable to their party were behind the desire to allow criminals having time to vote.

"By suggesting that illegal immigrants should be able to vote, by trying to reduce the voting age to 16, and by now offering convicted criminals behind bars, they should be able to vote, the Democrats are trying again to rewrite the rules of their own political agenda. When they can not win at the polls, Democrats are trying to rig the system in their favor, "RNC spokesman Mandi Merritt told Fox News.