• Tar_Alcaran
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      6 months ago

      Wait, are criminals not allowed to vote in the US?

      Jesus fucking hell, that is not ok.

      • nehal3m
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        6 months ago

        I think that’s a rule from the 1870’s mostly aimed at preventing black people from voting.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Yep, in combination with “vagrancy” laws.

          Here’s how the scheme worked:

          1. Refuse to hire blacks for anything more than “might as well still be slavery” wages.

          2. Arrest unemployed blacks for “vagrancy.”

          3. Re-enslave them (see “except as punishment for crime” clause of the 14th Amendment) and disenfranchise them as a bonus.

          Edit: BTW, I highly recommend this video, which is where I learned about this (because it sure as Hell wasn’t properly taught in my Georgia high school).

      • djsoren19@yiffit.net
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        6 months ago

        Yeah, it varys from pretty fucked up to unreasonably fucked up depending on the state. Some states, you’re not able to vote while serving your term. In other states, you lose your right to vote for life.

    • Cosmos7349@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Apparently he will be able to vote as long as he doesn’t go to prison. That’s the state law of NY, and Florida’s law is the defer to the state where the crime is.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      6 months ago

      I think his state of residence is Florida.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residences_of_Donald_Trump

      From his birth in 1946 until 2019, Trump listed his primary state of residence as New York; in September 2019, Donald and Melania moved their primary residence to Mar-a-Lago in Florida.[2][3] On January 20, 2021, Trump moved out of the White House preceding the inauguration of Joe Biden.[4]

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_disenfranchisement_in_the_United_States

      Florida is listed as temporarily disenfranchising felons:

      Felons are enfranchised immediately following the full completion of sentences – involving imprisonment and/or parole or probation.

      I don’t know when that starts, but I assume not until sentencing.

      So, in theory, I guess if he’s sentenced to any of those things and the sentence extends across the election, then no, he can’t vote. If he gets probation in New York, then it sounds like he can’t vote.

      But after any sentence is done, he can vote.

      I don’t know for sure whether, if someone is serving time in prison in New York, whether their state of residence is changed to New York, though, or whether it just is treated as their last state of residence (which is what happens if you leave the US and vote from abroad – you vote as if a resident of the state that you last resided in). If he winds up serving time in a New York prison, which I would not expect, and if that changes his state of residence to New York, then New York law would potentially apply.