Biden Losing It

[Irreligious Atheist]

But, why should someone in jail not have national or state voting rights?  I can see how local voting rights might be a problem - a town with a local prison could literally be run by the inmates.  Basically being in prison doesn't make you a "resident" of the town.

Stripping voting rights from inmates is done largely for racist reasons, as are the laws that target racial groups.  We don't allow intelligence tests, mental stability tests, or any other for voting.  Doing one bad thing in your life doesn't make you a non-person.  Voting rights are the most important way to preserve all other rights - including human rights.

I can answer this.

A person who's not been willing to uphold their responsibilities in regard to the social contract shouldn't be given a voice in molding it.

Like non-violent black drug offenders and innocent people in jail that took a plea deal because their lawyer recommended they do so? You give the system the power to take away people's votes, and they're going to use it to take away the votes of non-violent black offenders, while blacks are way over-represented in the prison population. Like Bernie Sanders and Happy Skeptic pointed out, this is a way to squash the black vote and it's racist.