Maryland lawmakers are considering a bill that would give voting rights to currently incarcerated individuals with felony convictions.
While existing law already requires the Maryland Board of Elections (MSBE) to place ballot drop boxes inside the state’s correction and detention facilities, incarcerated felons are barred from joining their fellow inmates in voting.
After passionate debate, felons who completed their court-ordered sentence, and any parole or probation term, gained voting access during the 2016 primary elections. Voting access was later expanded to strike parole and probation prohibitions, allowing felons to vote once released from prison.
Introduced by Del. Jheanelle Wilkins, D-Montgomery County, the Voting Rights for All Act would no longer require felons to wait until they get out of prison to vote.
The overall point of this bill is that when someone is serving time, that’s their punishment. The right to vote should not be a punishment or privilege for people, it is a right that people have. Not an additional punishment for the crime,” Del. Wilkins said.
“The fact that they’re incarcerated should be their punishment. They should serve their time for that, but the right to vote is not come kind of an additional privilege I am giving to people, it is something that is a right they should have, that should not be taken away.”
Democrats are losing voters so they need desperate measures
These f’in democrats will do anything for a vote