Sen. Bernie Sanders is the first 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who supports enfranchising people who are currently incarcerated. Other Democratic candidates like Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris have said they support enfranchising people returning from incarceration, but have only said that prisoners voting should be part of the "conversation." Following the comments, Republicans have painted Sanders's idea as "radical." Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories. 2020 Democrats across the board are in support of giving people convicted of felonies the right to vote after leaving prison, but Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday took the idea a step further and separated himself from the rest of the field. The Vermont senator is the only candidate vying for the 2020 Democratic nomination who supports enfranchising people who are currently behind bars, regardless of their crimes. Much like the issue of reparations for descendants of slaves, this topic has driven a wedge between 2020 Democrats. It's estimated roughly 4.5 million people in the US have been affected by felony disenfranchisement laws. Laws vary from state to state on whether or not current or former inmates are allowed to vote. At present, Maine and Vermont are the only two states where currently incarcerated people are enfranchised. During a CNN town hall on Monday, Sanders was asked if he'd even support voting rights for rapists or people like the Boston marathon bomber. Read more: Bernie Sanders says even 'terrible people' in prison for crimes like the Boston Marathon bombing should be allowed to vote "If somebody commits a serious crime, sexual assault, murder, they're going to be punished. They may be in jail 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, their whole life," Sanders said in response. "That's what happens when you commit a serious crime." "But I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy. Yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away…you're running down a slippery slope," Sanders added. "I believe even if they are in jail, they're paying the price to society, that should not take away their inherent American right to participate in our democracy." Read more: Bernie Sanders says his idea of democratic socialism isn't like the 'authoritarian communism' of the Soviet Union Republicans quickly denounced the Vermont senator's comments on voting rights for felons. "Just when you thought it couldn't get worse," GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said in a tweet, echoing McDaniel. "@BernieSanders supports allowing rapists, murderers, and terrorists – like the Boston bomber and Dylan Roof, the individual who massacred 9 church-goers in Charleston, to vote from prison," Graham added. Amid the backlash against Sanders from the GOP, a number of 2020 Democratic candidates have addressed this issue, but none of them are willing to go as far as the Vermont senator. And some completely oppose what he's proposed. Here's where they stand.<doc-sep>When Sen. Bernie Sanders said this week that even "terrible people" should be allowed to vote, he summed up Vermont's longstanding law on inmate voting. Vermont and Maine are the only states where people convicted of felonies never lose their right to vote — even while living behind bars — according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The rarity of Vermont's law was on display at a CNN Democratic presidential candidate town hall on Monday evening, when a Harvard University student asked Sanders whether he believed the Boston marathon bomber or people convicted of sexual assault should have voting rights in prison. "I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy. Yes, even for terrible people," Sanders replied. More: Bernie Sanders says felons, even Boston Marathon bomber, should have right to vote in prison Later in the town hall event, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg took the opposite position and argued that the right to vote is one of the freedoms that people lose while they are incarcerated. More:VT Insights: Bernie Sanders says focus on impeachment 'works to Trump's advantage' How voting works in Vermont prisons The stated policy of the Vermont Department of Corrections is to "encourage inmates to vote." Inmates are eligible to vote if they are U.S. citizens, if they are at least 18 years old on election day, and if they are Vermont residents. They can vote in federal, state and local elections. Vermont prisons hold voter registration drives at least 90 days before an election. Advocates from Disability Rights Vermont also offer voter registration drives. Inmates cannot use a prison address to register to vote. Instead, they must provide their "last voluntary address." Once they are registered, inmates can request an absentee ballot by writing to their town or city clerk and mailing back the ballot. It's unclear how many Vermonters exercise their right to vote from prison. Inmate ballots are mixed with all other absentee ballots in the towns where they are registered. According to a Department of Corrections internal guidance document, the right to vote also extends to the approximately 200 Vermont inmates incarcerated in Mississippi at a prison run by the private company CoreCivic. Advocates: Voting in prison keeps inmates involved Tina Hagen, a senior investigator at Disability Rights Vermont, said that in recent years the Department of Corrections has taken proactive steps to inform inmates about their voting rights. The process is much smoother compared to 15 years ago, she said. "I think they feel like it keeps them part of the community," Hagen said in a telephone interview. Ed Paquin, executive director of Disability Rights Vermont, added that it's important for people in prison to maintain connections with their families and the outside world. "It's pretty well recognized that any connection you can keep with your community is helpful," Paquin said. Contact April McCullum at 802-660-1863 or amccullum@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @April_McCullum.<doc-sep>Bernie Sanders over the weekend said that more states should let people with felony records vote while they’re in prison, Kevin Hardy reported for the Des Moines Register. “I think that is absolutely the direction we should go,” Sanders said during a town hall in Muscatine, Iowa, on Saturday, after he was asked if people should be allowed to vote from prison. Sanders’s home state of Vermont, which he represents as a US senator, is one of two that lets people vote while they’re in prison. Most states prohibit people from voting while they’re in prison, on parole, or on probation. And two — including Iowa, where Sanders was speaking — bar people with felony convictions from voting even after they’ve completed their prison, parole, or probation sentences. “You’re paying a price, you committed a crime, you’re in jail. That’s bad,” Sanders said. “But you’re still living in American society and you have a right to vote. I believe in that, yes, I do.” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, is pushing for that to change, advocating for a constitutional amendment to let people vote after they’ve completed their sentences. But the Republican-controlled Iowa Senate has blocked the proposal. Sanders isn’t the only Democratic candidate for president speaking on this issue. Last month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), one of Sanders’s opponents, said at an Iowa town hall in Storm Lake that people should be allowed to vote after they complete their sentences. “While they’re incarcerated, I think that’s something we can have more conversation about,” she added. As of 2016, 6.1 million people were prevented from voting due to a felony conviction, the Sentencing Project found. But that was before Florida voters elected to let most people with felony records vote after they complete their sentences — letting more than 1 million people vote again. Since black Americans are more likely to go to prison, these laws have a disproportionate impact on black voters: While the overall disenfranchisement rate didn’t break 11 percent for any state, more than 20 percent of black voters were disenfranchised in Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia in 2016. Courts, including the US Supreme Court, have generally upheld such voting restrictions under the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which suggests that the government may abridge the right to vote due to “participation in rebellion, or other crime.” The voting prohibition is one of the various collateral consequences of prison, which include restrictions on employment and bans on receiving welfare benefits, accessing public housing, or qualifying for student loans for higher education. So not only does prison deprive people of their freedoms while they’re incarcerated, but the punishment can follow people for the rest of their lives. The extended punishment can sometimes make it much more difficult for people with criminal records to regain rights and benefits that would allow them to get a job or an education, which might leave them with few options but crime to make ends meet. And since black people are more likely to be affected, collateral effects may help perpetuate crime in black communities in particular. Sanders, who’s spoken out against mass incarceration since at least 1991, wants to change that.<doc-sep>Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said he thinks every U.S. citizen, even the convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, should be allowed to vote in American elections. Sanders offered his stance at a CNN town hall Monday when asked whether he thought felons should be allowed to vote while they’re incarcerated, not just after their release. He was pressed on whether it was appropriate to enfranchise sex offenders or someone convicted of a heinous crime like Tsarnaev, who with his brother carried out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that left three dead and injured hundreds more. "Yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away and you say, 'Well, that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote. Well, that person did that. Not going to let that person vote,' you're running down a slippery slope," Sanders said in response to a question about restoring felons' voting rights. The question, and Sanders' response, was one of the more interesting moments in a marathon round of voter forums at Saint Anslem College in New Hampshire, where five Democratic hopefuls made their cases to young voters. Awaiting Biden:How Joe Biden's life, full of tragedy and triumph, led to one more run at the presidency Democrats diversity:Democratic voters ho-hum about diversity of 2020 field, according to new poll More:More young people likely to vote in 2020 than 2016, Harvard poll shows Sanders acknowledged that he’ll likely face criticism from both Republicans and Democrats over his stance. Still, he stood by his argument that even though offenders may be paying a debt to society while incarcerated it should “not take away their inherent American right to participate in our democracy.” “I think I have written many 30-second opposition ads throughout my life,” Sanders said of potential criticism. “This will be just another one.” California Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who appeared separately Monday night, were also posed questions about whether or not to allow convicted felons the right to vote while they are serving their sentences. Harris, a former prosecutor and state attorney general, was considerably more circumspect. "I think we should have that conversation," Harris said, adding that voting rights should not be "stripped" needlessly. "I have long been an advocate of making sure people formerly incarcerated are not denied the right to vote," Harris said. "In some states they're permanently deprived of the right to vote." Buttigieg didn’t hesitate when asked whether felons should be allowed to vote white serving their sentences. "No," he said. "I do believe that when you are, when you have served your sentence, then part of being restored to society is that you are part of the political life of this nation again and one of the things that needs to be restored is your right to vote." In all but two states—Maine and Sanders' home state of Vermont—adult citizens convicted of a felony are barred from voting while incarcerated, according to the group Nonprofit Vote, a consortium of nonprofits and social service agencies that promote voter participation. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia automatically restore voting rights upon release from prison. Five states reinstate voting rights once a felon is released and discharged from parole. Another 21 states restore voting rights after a felon completes any prison sentence, parole and probation. In six state states, the chance of restoring voting rights depends on the type of conviction and requires an ex-felon to petition the state government. In Iowa, ex-offenders must also pay all fines and fees to the court that are part of a sentence. Once complete, individuals convicted of a felony can apply to have their voting rights restored—which can only be done through the governor or the president. Kentucky’s constitution permanently bars all individuals with past felony convictions from voting, unless the governor restores the right to vote, according to Nonprofit Vote.<doc-sep>
Sen. Bernie Sanders (Reuters photo: Lucas Jackson) Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said Monday that all felons, including terrorists and rapists, should be able to vote while serving out their prison sentences. Asked during a CNN town hall in New Hampshire whether he believed people like the Boston marathon bomber should be disenfranchised, Sanders said no, and suggested that all restrictions on voting rights erode American democracy. “If somebody commits a serious crime, sexual assault, murder, they’re going to be punished,” he said. “They may be in jail for 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, their whole lives. That’s what happens when you commit a serious crime. But I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy. Yes, even for terrible people.” “Because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘well that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote,’ or ‘that person did that, not going to let that person vote,’ you’re running down a slippery slope,” he continued. “So, I believe that people commit crimes, they pay the price. They get out of jail, I believe they certainly should have the right to vote. But I believe even if they’re in jail, they’re paying their price to society, but that should not take away their inherent American right to participate in our democracy.” Sanders, who is polling second only to Joe Biden, effectively split the Democratic candidates attending the town hall on the question of voting rights for felons in prison. Senator Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) said she was open to having a “conversation” about whether terrorists and sexual offenders should be able to vote, while Southbend, Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg said definitively that he supports the restoration of voting rights after prison but not while someone is still serving their sentence. Send a tip to the news team at NR.