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American election: these 750,000 voters too often forgotten at the polls

There is less than a week left before the US presidential election on November 3. Donald Trump’s tenure in the White House has not been easy, and the current election is unleashing passions between those who want the Republican to stay and those who hope that Democratic candidate Joe Biden takes it away. However, there is one category of voters to which little attention is paid: the prison population. At least, those individuals who are being held in remand centers across the country, and for the most part are awaiting trial, sentencing, or cannot afford to pay their bail.

According to the BBC, they would not be less than 750,000 individuals in these remand centers, but all will probably not vote on November 3. Because they are somewhat forgotten by the ballot box. However, in the absence of a firm conviction, they do have the right to vote. This is no longer the case for Americans tried and incarcerated for crimes, with the exception of those serving prison sentences in the states of Vermont, Maine and Washington DC. This is a fundamental difference in the access of prisoners to the vote across the Atlantic.

Organizations to help register voters on the lists

The problem is that remand centers are not always equipped to allow their prisoners to exercise their right to vote, and the lack of education in this area does not help the situation. Some of these individuals do not know that they can still go to the polls despite their legal situation. Also, as reported by the British channel, in recent years, pro-democracy associations have been born and try, in several States, to coordinate actions in order to allow individuals in remand centers to vote. These organizations send volunteers to penitentiaries to remind prisoners of their rights and encourage them to register on the electoral roll.

Since 2017, the Chicago Votes association has thus enabled the registration on the lists of no less than 5,000 voters detained in remand centers, indicates the BBC. Last year, she even managed to get the Cook County, Illinois remand center to officially become a polling station for its inmates.

A complex prison system

The American prison system is often singled out for excluding large numbers of the American population from the polls. Few counties have the means to equip themselves to vote their detainees and there are many logistical problems. As the BBC points out, most states in the US require ID and proof of address in order to register a voter on a list. However, identity documents are often confiscated from detainees when they enter the remand center, and many of these potential voters do not have a fixed address.

This difficult access to the ballot boxes can pose a real problem of representation in the communities, in particular because certain minorities, such as African-Americans and Latin-Americans are very represented in the population in remand (about 50%). But these prisoners are not the only ones who have difficulty in voting. In general, the system permanently excludes any person convicted in his life for a crime.

In 11 American states, such as Alabama or Tennessee, a conviction for a serious crime loses one’s voting rights for life. To recover them, one must seek forgiveness from the governor of the state or undertake a complex process of restoring rights. In 21 states, such as New York, Wisconsin and Texas, the right to vote is suspended until at least the end of the probation period after release from prison. In 16 other states, such as Colorado, Illinois or Ohio, convicts lose their right to vote only for the duration of their prison sentence.

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