As Bernie Sanders Says 'No Apologies' for His Position, 70+ Groups Back Call

[Uncle Joe]

for Prisoner Voting Rights

(snip)

America, too, can honor every citizen’s right to vote and still flourish. Maine, Vermont, and Puerto Rico treat the right to vote as a bedrock democratic principle for all citizens, including those in prison.Advocates, people in prison, and even corrections officials say voting ​allows incarcerated people to maintain a sense of connection to the community​ and society at large, which in turn helps prepare them for life after prison. Protecting every American’s right to vote isn’t only popular, it’s also endorsed by those with the most intimate knowledge of our criminal legal system.

This practice has deep-seated roots in our Jim Crow past, and its modern persistence echoes historical pain. Felony disenfranchisement laws gained popularity in the post-Reconstruction era: shortly after black men gained the right to vote, disenfranchisement laws were codified to systematically strip away black votes. States where African Americans made up a greater portion of the prison population were significantly more likely​ to adopt felony disenfranchisement. As these laws spread, states began ​creating lists of crimes​ they believed were most likely to impact black voters. Felony disenfranchisement became a tool to limit the political power of black communities and individuals to elect representatives to advocate for their interests.

Even today, communities of color are disenfranchised at much higher rates than white voters. ​In the 2016election​, 7.4 percent of all African American adults were disenfranchised as a result of a felony conviction, a rate four times higher than the rest of the population. In Kentucky, a ​full quarter of the black electorate​ cannot vote today due to felony disenfranchisement. Latinx communities are also disenfranchised at ​rates greater than​ the general population. These racial disparities turn whole communities into second-class citizens, undermining faith in the fairness of our government, our elected officials, and the notion that all people are treated equally under the law.

We need a President who will stand up for the right of all Americans to vote. We thus ask each of you to publicly commit to ending felony disenfranchisement and to call for the restoration of voting rights for all citizens, regardless of their criminal history.

(snip)

Sincerely,

ABO Comix
Abolitionist Law Center
American Civil Liberties Union
American Homeless Society
Anthony Rella PLLC
Anti-Eviction Mapping Project
Brooklyn Defender Services
Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU School of Law
Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice
Chicago Animal Save
Chicago Community Bond Fund
Chicago Votes Action Fund
Citizen Action of New York
Color Of Change
Common Cause
DACC (Direct Action Coordinating Committee) at Amherst College
Data For Progress
Demos
Disability Advocates for Rights and Transition
Drug Policy Alliance
DSA MKE
Emancipation Initiative
Fierce Allies
Food Empowerment Project
For the People - Saint Louis
Franciscan Action Network
GAPIMNY—Empowering Queer & Trans Asian Pacific Islanders
Green Party of Allegheny County
Greenpeace USA
Harvard Law School National Lawyers Guild
Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign
Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of Deaf Communities - HEARD
Illinois Coalition Against Torture
Indivisible Midlands (SC2)
JustLeadershipUSA
LatinoJustice PRLDEF
Let's Get Free: The Women and Trans Prisoner Defense Committee
LinkUp
Millions For Prisoners New Mexico
National Lawyers Guild
National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund
New Jersey Institute for Social Justice
North Carolina Green Party
North NJ Democratic Socialists of America
Northwest Detroiters For Social Justice
Nu View Consulting
Pitt Prison Outreach
Popular Resistance
Princeton Students for Prison Education and Reform
Prison Policy Initiative
Project NIA
Quixote Center
Racial Justice Action Center
Real Justice PAC
Rid Racism Milwaukee
Right2Vote Campaign
San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper
Seattle Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee
Showing Up for Racial Justice
Southern Center for Human Rights
Southern Poverty Law Center
Students Against Mass Incarceration
Students for Prison Education and Reform
The Joseph Spencer Pratt Justice Reform Advocacy Group
The Justice Collaborative
The North Star
The Queer Palestinian Empowerment Network
UMass Prison Abolition Collective
Valley Justice Coalition
WESPAC Foundation, Inc
WNY Peace Center
Worth Rises
Yoga For Peace, Justice, Harmony With The Planet

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/30/bernie-sanders-says-no-apologies-his-position-70-rights-groups-back-call-prisoner#

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. That's seventy votes and then some right there.

[robbedvoter]

61. Bingo! Maybe les as the ame people are members of all

[LovingA2andMI]

2. And This is Why He Won't EVER Be POTUS....

As Murders and beyond Sicko Child Molesters should NOT have the RIGHT to VOTE from behind Prison Bars. Period!

[leftofcool]

26. No one that advoates that child rapists should vote from behind bars will ever get my support

[BeckyDem]

3. The important thing about Sanders then and now is that policies become discussed

and that is a great aspect whether one likes him or not. These groups may change the minds of other candidates but most importantly, change the minds and hearts of voters so we move further away from punitive measures.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

4. Yup, policies discussed & policies adopted. Bernie shining the light of truth to illuminate the way

for his fellow Democrats to follow.

Gotta love Bernie!!


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[George II]

8. .

[NYMinute]

17. ...

[LanternWaste]

41. He's shining a light on an already brightly lit concern.

But at least he's at the same party the Democrats are throwing...

(btw: Evolution, not Revolution. One is natural, the other violent)

[cwydro]

59. Wait. "Fellow" Democrats?

Is Bernie a a Democrat now?

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

60. Yes... don't know how you missed that.

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[Demsrule86]

21. I don't give two shits about this. And equating this to jim crow issues

Last edited Wed May 1, 2019, 02:05 PM - Edit history (1)

nauseates me. Is this Sanders idea of outreach to POC?

[BeckyDem]

23. You don't have to care about anything.

Obviously, groups like the ACLU do care and that places Sanders in good company without your consent.

[Demsrule86]

27. I care about many things like the fact POC are jailed unfairly...that is our fight...not

this. Does Sanders think this is some sort of outreach to POC?

[BeckyDem]

28. I don't know, ask his campaign.

The ACLU and many other groups find it relevant, thus their agreement with him on said policy.

[Demsrule86]

35. I wouldn't bother.

[dogman]

29. Considering he wants them to have the right to vote, what is your issue with him?

Maybe when those people vote, they can bring the changes needed to stop unfair jailing. It is all connected, it is about human rights.

[Demsrule86]

40. First of all any voting rights will be used against incarcerated folks.

Secondly, let's not make people POC the face of incarcerated felons. Thirdly, voting rights should be restored after release. And finally this will always be a state issue as elections always are.

[dogman]

44. You stated:"I care about many things like the fact POC are jailed unfairly"

Then you state:"let's not make people POC the face of incarcerated felons".
I'm sorry, but I can't follow this further.

[Hortensis]

45. Many of us Democrats DO care about this, though, Beck.

It's hardly a new issue to a bunch of us, including many in office. I'm just surprised that as a Democrat this issue is new to you. My husband and I have been members of the ACLU for most of the past 3 decades, have known people who've been disenfranchised, and have contacted legislators working for and against this issue before.

But I don't remember Sanders ever rising to visibility on this in the past. I imagine he probably would have been on the right side, but perhaps not "caring" enough to lower himself to join Democrats of past decades in efforts that would require more than his usual +1 vote to the Democratic caucus. One might have thought a person who wants to be president might have tried to rise to leadership at some point, though.

But that was then. It's used used for many decades especially to disenfranchise PoC and low-income groups, and Vermont is a very white state isn't it?

And this is now. No surprise that he's making a public statement (!) at a time when he needs to produce some caring on issues PoC tend to consider their own.

[BeckyDem]

53. Where did I say this was new to me? That's right, I didn't.

I have no interest in what you think of Sanders and his motivations.

[Hortensis]

56. Inferred from your description of this as Sanders' policy

and how his groups are bringing it forward. And now, as LanternWaste put it, turns out you actually already knew that "he's shining a light on an already brightly lit concern"?

I mind this, Beck, because I take being portrayed as needing enlightenment from him as a profound insult. This disenfranchisement business goes to hugely important core liberal principles.

If you have to deny the strong principles and moral stands of most Democrats to make Sanders look better to the ignorant, what are you doing? Find ways to demonstrate what you see as his superiority that can stand on their own merits and that don't require denying who and what Democrats are. Some achievement in private life perhaps.

[BeckyDem]

57. lol what a bizarre response, and complete nonsense.

I am not interested in what you find credible of Sanders or not. None.

[Uncle Joe]

47. History can be nauseating but that doesn't make it any less true. n/t

[tymorial]

5. No. Nt

[rgbecker]

6. Good enough for the ACLU, good enough for me.

Another great Post, Uncle Joe.

People on the DU may hate Bernie, but his ideas will be on future Democratic Platforms guaranteed. Maybe even in 2020.

[LongtimeAZDem]

39. While I can find numerous statements by the ACLU advocating restoration of voting rights to those

with felony records, I cannot find on supporting such rights for incarcerated felons.

[rgbecker]

58. Read the OP. ACLU is on the list of 70 supporting the statement.

[George II]

7. Those aren't endorsements, those are agreements with Sanders' positions....

....which have been articulated by countless Americans for decades. They're nothing new and nothing "revolutionary".

What's up with Sanders all of a sudden asking Democrats for "commitments" for this, that, and the other?

(btw, I've never even heard of more than half those groups)

[cab67]

10. If he was consistently a member of the Democratic Party

I'd be more interested in what he thinks Democrats should commit to.

[George II]

16. That's pretty much what I was thinking. He wants Democrats to commit to all sorts....

...of things, yet it took him years to commit (and most likely temporarily) to the Democratic Party.

[cab67]

20. He's only a Democrat when he wants to run for president.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. Nuview Consulting is a consulting firm

https://www.nuviewconsulting.org/

[Demsrule86]

22. So they were hired to say this...great catch DSB.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. Why does a google search for many of these groups reveal nothing?

[NurseJackie]

18. What? You mean you've NEVER heard of the world famous highly influential think-tank for public...

(btw, I've never even heard of more than half those groups)

What? You mean you've NEVER heard of the world famous highly influential think-tank for public policy known as "Yoga For Peace, Justice, Harmony With The Planet"



Hey, George!

[George II]

19. You're killing me! How about:

Chicago Animal Save - "Free the puppies!"

[Uncle Joe]

49. Bernie pinned an OPED in USA Today but the letter in the OP is an

open letter from those advocacy groups, not Bernie.

[NurseJackie]

12. I wonder if "Yoga For Peace, Justice, Harmony With The Planet" is very influential.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. A Google search reveals nothing.

[LongtimeAZDem]

14. Once again, the argument rests on unequal incarceration along racial lines. That is the problem

to be addressed, not giving pedophiles and murderers the vote.

[Demsrule86]

24. Exactly right.

[dogman]

30. The right to vote, if exercized, can change unequal incaraeration.

Pedophiles and murderers vote now, there are no restrictions for that now. Only convicts are held to that.

[LongtimeAZDem]

31. The right to vote is a core component of the social contract; those justly convicted of felonies

have abrogated their responsibilities to that social contract, and as a result, have forfeited the privileges afforded by it.

[dogman]

32. Until the right to vote as a citizen is restored.

That is the point of this. It is time to update the social contract to reflect human rights.

[LongtimeAZDem]

34. That restoration should occur once the obligation to the social contract, i.e. the criminal sentence,

is completed, not before.

[dogman]

37. According to you, but not the 70+ civil rights groups.

Hopefully civil rights prevails again, Bernie is leading on that effort. Your social contract with that restriction is not in place in his home state Vermont and nearby Maine. Many countries, including Israel allow prisoners to vote. If minorities are disproportionately imprisoned, it is an unfair standard. They are counted for representation yet not allowed to vote for their Representative.

[LongtimeAZDem]

42. I cannot find any statements by the ACLU advocating voting rights for incarcerated felons

There are numerous statements on the restoration of such rights after sentence is served, and of the disparities in the process, but they do not appear to support your position.

As to the rest of them, I will look at their arguments, but I'm not really interested in what the "Yoga For Peace, Justice, Harmony With The Planet" group has to say.

[dogman]

48. They signed the above letter.

If you don't care about yoga enthusiasts who want Peace, Justice, and Harmony with the Planet, fine, but they have a cause that harms no one that I can see.

[LongtimeAZDem]

46. I don't see anything from the Southern Poverty Law Center supporting this either

Like the ACLU, the support full and fair restoration of rights post incarceration, but nobody is arguing with that.

[dogman]

50. They signed the letter.

[LongtimeAZDem]

51. So what? Given that it is a departure form their previous positions, I doubt that clause would be

one that they would stake their position upon.

[dogman]

54. Who am I to argue with your doubts?

[LongtimeAZDem]

55. Argue all you wish; like I said, I love the fact that Sanders is promoting this suicidal issue

[crazytown]

25. Lemmings

I’ve never seen such a straightforward example of political suicide. Amazing.

[Hortensis]

33. Make that 70+ plus 1. The fundamentalist RW church

of a sister-in-law of a neighbor apparently finally preaches against Trump, so reportedly she and a couple of friends formed a pro-Sanders group to fight Democrats and their evil socialism from. Yes, I know, but it apparently makes sense to them.

She also doesn't like Jews, and go figure that. My husband is, and according to her our children belong to that "race" also. I've managed not to see her for a few years now, but in the past she's considered Jews necessary for the second coming and to commit genocide against Muslims.

Anyway, Trump's loss is Sanders' gain.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

36. I believe people who are incarcerated should not lose the right to vote.

I do not think it is a useful campaign issue, and I do not support Sanders.

[LongtimeAZDem]

43. I wholeheartedly support Sanders, and Sanders alone, making this a campaign issue

[WhiskeyGrinder]

52. I'm sorry to see the important issue get tied up with his personality, and hope that his making it

an issue doesn't it do it harm over time.

[JHan]

62. It's not a popular idea..

But I do agree with him on this. I don't get the fear either, what platform will an especially vicious criminal vote for? Is that the concern?

The right to vote is fundamental, and incarceration should not strip that right. Voting is fundamental to democracy, prisoners still retain constitutional rights even in jail.

This is why the focus ought to be on democracy and rights. And this is where I think Sanders erred in the way he communicated it - by citing the Boston bomber - because it launched a million memes which missed the point and gave Fox News fodder. Another angle he could have used is the way prison populations are used in the drawing up of legislative districts while being denied a fundamental right.

But he is absolutely correct. Once you put limitations on who can and cannot vote - a basic right of every citizen - you can justify preventing even ex felons voting and more, and that's how it becomes a "slippery slope"

[Uncle Joe]

64. I agree on all counts JHan except for one caveat

Bernie never cited the Boston Bomber, the question during a town hall was phrased that way to him.

[JHan]

65. Okay, thanks for the clarification.

I still think he could have pivoted away from that trap.

I think as liberals we also need to get it straight. We're about voting rights. The hysteria is unfortunate.

[sarabelle]

63. I am all for people who have served their prison time to have their voting rights restored.

I am not for felons still in prison having voting rights...UNLESS they are being counted as part of the population in the state in which they are imprisoned. If they are counted as part of the population for apportionment purposes then they ought to have the right to vote because they are being counted for every other census reason that other citizens are being counted.