he latest debate in the 2020 presidential race has exposed the limits of how far Democrats are willing to go on voting rights. It began with a question to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), from a volunteer with the American Civil Liberties Union at an Iowa town hall in April: Should people in prison be allowed to vote? Sanders said yes, and then doubled down on his answer. At a CNN town hall a couple weeks later, Sanders was asked if the Boston marathon bomber should be allowed to vote — and, again, said yes. In a USA Today op-ed, he defended his position, arguing that “the right to vote is an inalienable and universal principle that applies to all American citizens 18 years and older. Period.” Since Sanders was first asked, other Democratic candidates have been questioned about their stances. Most other candidates have yet to say that prisoners should be given the right to vote, instead defending the right to vote only for nonviolent offenders or people who completed their sentences. Some appear undecided. Only two states — Maine and Vermont, where Sanders is from — currently let all people vote while they’re in prison. Other states apply restrictions based on whether someone is in prison, on probation, on parole, or has completed a sentence. (They don’t typically make a distinction on whether a person’s crime was violent or not.) (function() { var l = function() { new pym.Parent( 'vox-felony-disenfranchisement-laws-by-state-3__graphic', 'https://apps.voxmedia.com/at/vox-felony-disenfranchisement-laws-by-state-3/'); }; if(typeof(pym) === 'undefined') { var h = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0], s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = 'https://pym.nprapps.org/pym.v1.min.js'; s.onload = l; h.appendChild(s); } else { l(); } })(); As of 2016, 6.1 million people were prevented from voting due to a felony conviction, and about 1.3 million were in state or federal prison, the Sentencing Project, an advocacy group, found. Since black Americans are more likely to go to prison, these laws have a disproportionate impact on black voters, in part reflecting their roots in the Jim Crow era: More than 20 percent of black voters were disenfranchised in Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia in 2016. There appears to be some support for giving people convicted of felonies their voting rights back. Last fall, Florida voted to let most people with felony records vote once they complete their sentences — giving the right to vote back to, potentially, more than 1 million people (although that’s now in question as Republican lawmakers place new restrictions on who can vote). What Sanders is calling for, though, goes much further, enfranchising literally hundreds of thousands or millions of people across the country — in a way that could especially benefit black voters. For some Democrats, who have paid more attention to voting rights in recent years, and for activists with the ACLU who are aiming to get candidates on the record on this topic, it’s a logical next step. But the discussion has shown there are limits in how far even some Democrats — let alone the public — are willing to go in expanding voting rights. The polls so far show that giving people in prison the right to vote is unpopular among the majority of voters and Democrats. And in a Democratic primary where so much of the attention, even beyond policy specifics, is going to finding the candidate who can beat President Donald Trump, that unpopularity is drawing concerns about whether a politically risky issue like this one should be discussed at all. Modern felony disenfranchisement laws have some roots in Jim Crow Felony disenfranchisement laws slotted into the push after the Civil War, particularly in the South, to limit civil rights gains following the end of slavery and ratification of constitutional amendments — the 13th, 14th, and 15th — protecting minority rights. The resistance to civil rights gains also included the Jim Crow laws behind legally enforced racial segregation and other limits on black voting power. It’s been a decades-long project for civil rights activists to undo all of these laws. After the civil right movement, Democrats have taken up the banner to protect minority voting rights. Passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was fairly bipartisan, but since then Republicans in particular have moved to curtail access to the polls through voter ID laws, cuts to early voting, and purges of the voter rolls. Democrats have fought back against Republicans on these issues, but the Democratic efforts haven’t included much advocacy on prisoner disenfranchisement laws. Preventing people with criminal records from voting in the US goes back to the colonial era and the concept of “civil death” — the notion that some bad actions effectively left a person dead in terms of civic engagement. But there’s also a uniquely American and racist twist to this story, rooted in Jim Crow. After the South lost the Civil War, state lawmakers in Florida, for example, enacted laws — the Black Codes — to constrain black rights. They created crimes, such as disobedience and “disrespect to the employer,” that could be enforced in a way that would target and criminalize black people in particular, according to a 2016 report by the Brennan Center for Justice, an advocacy group. Then, when Florida was forced to write voting rights protections for men of all races into its state constitution, lawmakers added an exception that would exempt victims of the Black Codes: Article XIV, Section 2, imposed a lifetime voting ban for people with felony convictions. Section 4 of this same suffrage article directed the legislature to “enact the necessary laws to exclude from ... the right of suffrage, all persons convicted of bribery, perjury, larceny, or of infamous crime” — the same crimes the legislature had recently recognized and expanded through the Black Code. Brennan went on: “Shortly after the 1868 constitution was approved, a moderate Republican leader boasted that he had kept Florida from becoming ‘niggerized.’” Since then, Florida has changed its constitution and laws, Brennan noted, and the felony disenfranchisement law was reformed again after the report, in the 2018 elections. But the roots of its post–Civil War disenfranchisement laws linger. Florida was not alone. Journalists and historians have documented similar efforts in Virginia and other Southern states. And of course, the federal government had to enact the (now-weakened) Voting Rights Act of 1965 to shield black voters from state-level discrimination, as well as other civil rights laws to prohibit other forms of systemic racism. But the criminal justice system remains one path toward disenfranchising voters, with a criminal or felony record often costing people various legal rights and protections even after they get out of jail or prison. And this system is rife with racial disparities, as the Washington Post’s Radley Balko explained in his thorough breakdown of the research. “We use our criminal justice system to label people of color ‘criminals’ and then engage in all the practices we supposedly left behind,” Michelle Alexander argued in her influential (and at times criticized) book The New Jim Crow. “Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans.” Still, felony disenfranchisement laws have survived legal challenges. 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.” Without the courts, the only real hope for these efforts is to turn influential politicians and public opinion around on the issue — which is what Sanders seems to be trying to do and what some activists are encouraging. This might have to trickle down to the state level too, because there’s some scholarly debate about whether Congress even has the power to end felony disenfranchisement at the federal level. Where Democrats stand on felony disenfranchisement With the debate about voting from prison, Democrats now have a chance to expand the broader debate about voting rights. But, besides Sanders, most other candidates haven’t committed to full voting rights for people in prison. Sanders has been very explicit in his case: He argues that voting is a right that should never be taken away from anyone in a democracy. And that means people, no matter how terrible they prove to be, should keep their right to vote. “Even if Trump’s former campaign manager and personal lawyer end up in jail, they should still be able to vote — regardless of who they cast their vote for,” he wrote in USA Today. He later added, “In my view, the crooks on Wall Street who caused the great recession of 2008 that hurt millions of Americans are not ‘good’ people. But they have the right to vote, and it should never be taken away.” Some journalists, pundits, and activists have sided with Sanders. Writing in New York magazine, Zak Cheney-Rice argued that people aren’t imprisoned just because of bad decisions or mistakes, but also due to systemic factors that led them on a wrong path. Denying these people the right to vote robs them of the opportunity to express how society has failed them, how society continues to fail them through torturous and unconstitutional prison environments, and how society should and can be corrected, he argued. “A society that expels from its conception of humanity so many people who are sick, or in pain, or who make mistakes based upon which their entire lives are suddenly deprived of the opportunity for redemption, is an immoral society,” Cheney-Rice wrote. “But most Americans will not see that unless prisoners have a voice in that society. Giving them the vote is not the whole answer, nor is it the only one. But it is an essential beginning.” He pointed out that, beyond Maine and Vermont, several countries let people vote from prison to varying degrees, including France, Israel, Japan, and Sweden. But so far, other Democratic candidates have mostly distanced themselves, to varying degrees, from Sanders’s proposal. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg spoke in stark terms, arguing, “I do believe that when you are out, 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.” He added, “But part of the punishment when you’re convicted of a crime and you’re incarcerated is you lose certain rights, you lose your freedom. And I think during that period it does not make sense to have an exception for the right to vote.” Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX), meanwhile, suggested that maybe there should be an exception for nonviolent offenders: “I would think especially for nonviolent offenders that we rethink removing the right to vote and allow everyone, or as many as possible, to participate in our democracy. For violent criminals, it’s much harder for me to reach that conclusion.” Other candidates suggested they’re undecided. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), for example, said, “Once someone pays their debt to society, they’re out there expected to pay taxes, they’re expected to abide by the law, they’re expected to support themselves and their families. I think that means they’ve got a right to vote. While they’re still incarcerated, I think it’s a different question. And I think that’s something that we could have more conversation about.” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) similarly said, “I think we should have that conversation.” It’s a philosophical question: Can someone at some point do something so terrible that he loses his right to vote? For Sanders, the answer is no. For others, the answer is yes, though just how terrible the act has to be before that right is lost, and how long the right is lost for, varies from candidate to candidate. Sanders’s stance is very unpopular One reason Sanders’s Democratic opponents may be reluctant to support his idea: politics. The idea of letting people in prison vote is very unpopular. A recent poll from the Hill and Harris X found that 69 percent of registered voters — and 61 percent of Democrats — said people who are incarcerated for a felony shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Another poll by YouGov found that 65 percent of Americans disagree with Sanders’s statement that all prisoners, including “terrible people” like the Boston Marathon bomber, should be allowed to vote. There is support for letting people vote after they complete their sentences. YouGov found that 65 percent of Americans agree that people convicted of a nonviolent felony should be allowed to vote after they have completed their sentences. And in Florida, voters approved an initiative, with nearly 65 percent in favor, letting people convicted of felonies vote once they’ve completed their sentences, with exceptions for those convicted of murder or felony sex offenses. But with the poll numbers on prisoners’ voting rights, it’s not hard to guess why a bunch of Democratic candidates might be cautious about supporting the idea. This has come up with some other issues in the Democratic primaries, like reparations. While some Democrats may truly believe that reparations are good policy, they’re still widely viewed as politically toxic. Sanders himself previously took this approach when asked about reparations, calling the idea “very divisive” in 2016. But in other instances, and seemingly with prisoner voting rights, Sanders has stuck his neck out in support of political causes. He is, after all, a self-described socialist willing to take on the establishment. His entire 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton was widely considered a long shot, but he launched it anyway largely to move the party to the left on issues like college and health care. To Sanders’s credit, this worked. Today, Democrats are tripping over themselves in voicing their support for Medicare-for-all or at least some sort of expansion of public health insurance. It’s hard to see that happening, or the broader conversation about single-payer health care in general, without Sanders putting the issue at the front of his 2016 bid for the White House. For activists, this is what they want to see. As the ACLU explained, “If we can raise the volume on key issues like criminal justice reform, immigration, voting rights and reproductive freedom with presidential candidates before the 2020 primaries, we can make sure civil rights and civil liberties are front and center.” For many Democrats, though, this isn’t the time for stands purely based on principle. An overwhelming focus of the 2020 Democratic primaries is to find a candidate who can beat Trump. The notion of “electability” is one of the reasons that former Vice President Joe Biden is leading in the polls. So taking up a cause that is very unpopular and could help Democrats lose the 2020 election is a nonstarter for many, even those who may in theory support giving people in prison the right to vote nationwide. There may be some political incentives for Democrats to embrace Sanders’s views on prisoner voting rights, though. The research indicates that letting people convicted of felonies vote could disproportionately benefit Democrats. That’s made Republicans more resistant to the idea — Trump and Vice President Mike Pence criticized Sanders’s comments — but it could make Democrats more receptive, too. But, at least for now, most of the public, Democrats, and the presidential candidates are not on board. Content by Vox NEXT 360p 720p HD 1080p HD Auto (360p) About Connatix V60548 About Connatix V60548 Visit Advertiser website GO TO PAGE Skip 1/1 Vox’s guide to where 2020 Democrats stand on policy Health care 16 The metapolitics of Medicare-for-all Bernie Sanders’s Medicare-for-all plan, explained The Sanders-Warren dispute about how to pay for Medicare-for-all, explained Elizabeth Warren’s plan to pay for Medicare-for-all, explained Elizabeth Warren’s new Medicare-for-all plan starts out with a public option Joe Biden’s health care plan, explained Kamala Harris’s Medicare-for-all plan, explained Pete Buttigieg’s Medicare-for-all-who-want-it plan, explained Where 2020 Democrats agree and disagree on Medicare-for-all How the Democratic presidential candidates would combat the opioid epidemic Elizabeth Warren’s $100 billion plan to fight the opioid epidemic, explained Kamala Harris’s plan to reduce prescription drug costs, explained America’s first-ever public option, explained by Gov. Jay Inslee Elizabeth Warren’s ambitious new bill to lower generic drug prices, explained What 2020 Democrats would do about maternal mortality rates Democrats’ confused, and confusing, Medicare-for-all debate Show More Criminal justice 12 Bernie Sanders’s criminal justice reform plan, explained Elizabeth Warren’s criminal justice reform plan, explained Kamala Harris’s criminal justice reform plan, explained Cory Booker is a genuinely distinctive Democrat on one big issue: criminal justice Cory Booker has a plan to reform the criminal justice system — without Congress The controversial 1994 crime law that Joe Biden helped write, explained Amy Klobuchar’s record as a “tough on crime” prosecutor, explained Joe Biden’s long record supporting the war on drugs and mass incarceration, explained Kamala Harris just introduced a bill to decriminalize marijuana Amy Klobuchar has a plan to reverse the war on drugs — and doesn’t need Congress to do it Kamala Harris wants public defenders to get paid as much as prosecutors Thousands of rape kits are currently untested. Kamala Harris has a plan to change that. Show More Taxes and economics 12 Bernie Sanders’s wealth tax proposal, explained Elizabeth Warren’s proposed tax on enormous fortunes, explained Bernie Sanders’s new plan to supercharge the estate tax, explained Elizabeth Warren’s latest big idea is “economic patriotism” Bernie Sanders wants to tax companies that pay their CEOs way more than their workers Elizabeth Warren’s plan to expand Social Security, explained The big divide among 2020 Democrats over trade — and why it matters Presidential hopefuls are promising workers a $15 minimum wage Elizabeth Warren’s vision for changing America’s trade policy, explained Elizabeth Warren’s plan to make farming great again, explained Amy Klobuchar’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan, explained Michael Bennet’s plan to prevent and end recessions, explained Show More Immigration 6 The 2020 Democratic immigration debate, explained Bernie Sanders’s immigration plan puts the rights of workers into focus Elizabeth Warren’s immigration proposal goes much further than a pathway to citizenship Julián Castro wants to radically restrict immigration enforcement Beto O’Rourke’s immigration plan would go even further on executive power than Trump Elizabeth Warren has endorsed the most radical immigration idea in the 2020 primary Climate change 12 A guide to how 2020 Democrats plan to fight climate change Kamala Harris’s climate plan would take polluters to court Bernie Sanders’s Green New Deal, explained Pete Buttigieg wants the US to be carbon-neutral by the time he’s 68 Elizabeth Warren thinks corruption is why the US hasn’t acted on climate change Julián Castro’s Green New Deal frames climate as a civil rights issue Beto O’Rourke now has the most robust climate proposal of any 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s plan to tackle climate change, explained Jay Inslee promised serious climate policy and he is delivering Jay Inslee has a radical plan to phase out fossil fuel production in the US Kirsten Gillibrand wants the fossil fuel industry to pay for climate damages Jay Inslee is writing the climate plan the next president should adopt Show More Identity and social justice 12 The 2020 Democratic primary debate over reparations, explained Pete Buttigieg has a plan to win over women The one big policy change 2020 Democrats want to make for veterans, explained Julián Castro has an ambitious plan to fix American policing Marianne Williamson presents the 2020 Democratic primary’s first reparations plan Pete Buttigieg lays out his plan to help black Americans Julián Castro released an animal welfare plan. It’s good policy — and smart politics. Julián Castro’s indigenous communities plan is a 2020 first Elizabeth Warren has a plan to narrow the wage gap for women of color Amy Klobuchar releases plan to fight hate crimes in wake of El Paso shooting Study: Cory Booker’s baby bonds nearly close the racial wealth gap for young adults Beto O’Rourke just unveiled a comprehensive proposal to protect LGBTQ people Show More Education 8 Elizabeth Warren’s K-12 education plan, explained Elizabeth Warren’s free college plan, explained Bernie Sanders’s free college proposal just got a whole lot bigger Bernie Sanders is rolling out an education plan that cracks down on charter schools Kamala Harris’s plan to dramatically increase teacher salaries, explained Democrats’ ongoing argument about free college, explained Cory Booker’s massive overhaul of the Newark schools, explained Joe Biden’s plan to triple spending on low-income schools, explained Business, labor, and tech 12 Every 2020 frontrunner’s labor platform, explained Bernie Sanders’s plan to reshape corporate America, explained Elizabeth Warren wants to break up Google, Amazon, and Facebook Amy Klobuchar enters 2020 race ready to take on Big Tech Elizabeth Warren’s new plan to make sure Amazon (and other big companies) pays corporate tax, explained Elizabeth Warren wants CEOs to go to jail when their companies behave badly The 20-year argument between Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren over bankruptcy, explained Bernie Sanders’s corporate employee ownership plan, explained Elizabeth Warren’s latest Wall Street enemy: private equity The big new plan to save unions endorsed by Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, explained Bernie Sanders’s ambitious plan to double union membership, explained Facial recognition tech is a problem. Here’s how the Democratic candidates plan to tackle it. Show More Family issues 6 We asked all the 2020 Democrats how they’d fix child care. Here’s what they said. Kamala Harris’s new paid family leave plan is the most generous yet Elizabeth Warren’s universal child care plan, explained Kamala Harris’s plan to close the gender wage gap, explained Kirsten Gillibrand is making paid family leave a defining issue in her 2020 run Kirsten Gillibrand’s new policy platform is about making parenting affordable Foreign policy 8 The 2020 Democrats’ foreign policy divide Democrats want to challenge Trump’s foreign policy in 2020. They’re still working out how. Democrats are increasingly critical of Israel. Not Pete Buttigieg. Bernie Sanders’s political revolution on foreign policy, explained John Delaney has a serious foreign policy plan Why Kirsten Gillibrand’s foreign policy plan is one of the strongest yet Why Joe Biden’s foreign policy experience is both a weakness and a strength in 2020 Joe Biden wants to restore the pre-Trump world order Guns 6 Here’s where every 2020 candidate stands on guns Joe Biden’s gun plan calls for universal background checks and an assault weapons ban Elizabeth Warren has a new plan to reduce gun violence by 80 percent Bernie Sanders’s record on gun control, explained Pete Buttigieg’s plan to combat domestic terrorists and pass gun control laws, explained Cory Booker’s ambitious new gun control plan, explained Abortion 4 Here’s where all the 2020 Democratic candidates stand on abortion rights Elizabeth Warren just announced her abortion platform. It’s aggressive. Kamala Harris has a plan to stop states from restricting abortion access Joe Biden’s evolution on abortion, explained Government reform and anti-corruption 8 Elizabeth Warren’s new remedy for corruption: a tax on lobbying Elizabeth Warren’s first priority as president: ending government corruption 2020 Democrats’ campaign finance pledges, explained Elizabeth Warren has a new plan to make voting easier The Democratic debate over filibuster reform, explained Elizabeth Warren says she wants to make it legal to indict presidents Kirsten Gillibrand’s plan to get more small donors into politics: give every voter $600 Elizabeth Warren’s new policy rollout targets Pentagon corruption Poverty and inequality 4 5 anti-poverty plans from 2020 Democratic presidential contenders, explained Kamala Harris’s new basic income-style bill is so frustratingly close to being great Why Andrew Yang wants to give a random Twitter follower a $12,000 basic income Elizabeth Warren’s plan to fix America’s digital divide, explained Housing 3 Bernie Sanders’s housing-for-all plan, explained Cory Booker’s plan to fix the housing crisis and make renting affordable Cory Booker and Kamala Harris’s affordable housing plans, explained Most Read <img class="c-dynamic-image " alt="A cartoon of a woman wearing a shirt that reads “super mom” sitting at a desk looking at an open laptop and a tablet on a stand." data-chorus-optimize-field="main_image" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAUEBAAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs" data-cid="site/dynamic_size_image-1601047081_1441_33898" data-cdata='{"image_id":67450083,"ratio":"standard"}'> <noscript><img alt="A cartoon of a woman wearing a shirt that reads “super mom” sitting at a desk looking at an open laptop and a tablet on a stand." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/67450083/Header.0.jpg"></noscript> The hell that is remote learning, explained in a comic Here’s what one week of online school is like for my 7- and 5-year-old kids.