AOC Backed Up Bernie Sanders on Voting Rights for People With Felony Convictions

[Uncle Joe]

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is back on Twitter with a thread about why incarcerated people shouldn’t be denied the right to vote. Jumping off a TV town hall comment by 2020 presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), AOC broke down why being imprisoned shouldn’t mean losing your voice in democracy.

(snip)

"Instead of asking, ‘Should the Boston Bomber have the right to vote?’ Try, ‘Should a nonviolent person stopped w/ a dime bag LOSE the right to vote?’” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “[Because] that question reflects WAY more people.”

Tying the denial of voting rights to slavery, Jim Crow laws, the War on Drugs, and mass incarceration, the congresswoman from the Bronx made the case that denying voting rights to convicted felons intersects with how people of color are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system: The result is that the black and brown people the criminal justice system seemingly targets are losing their voting rights behind bars.

(snip)

ProCon.org, a nonprofit that researches controversial issues, found that in 2016, an estimated 6.1 million people with felony convictions in the U.S. could not vote — approximately 2.5% of the voting population (excluding Washington, D.C.). Because of African-Americans’s disproportionate representation in prison populations in the U.S., in 2016 7.44% of them could not vote due to felony convictions. In some states, the percentages are higher; 26.15% of Kentucky’s black population couldn’t vote in 2016 for this reason. The same year, 10.43% of all Florida voting-age residents couldn’t vote because of a felony record.

(snip)

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-aoc-bernie-sanders-voting-rights-felony-convictions

[stonecutter357]

1. I am not ok with a Pedophile voting ...

[Uncle Joe]

4. Do you believe pedophiles should be tortured or murdered in prison?

Shortly after 2 am on 6 April 2010, a guard at Salinas Valley state prison noticed Alan Ager’s cellmate trying to stuff something under a mattress. It was Ager, blood trickling from his mouth and a cloth noose tied around his neck.

The convicted child molester died 10 days later without regaining consciousness, his death earning his cellmate a second life sentence.

California state prisoners are killed at a rate that is double the national average – and sex offenders like Ager account for a disproportionate number of victims, according to an Associated Press analysis of corrections records.

Male sex offenders made up about 15% of the prison population but accounted for nearly 30 percent of homicide victims, the AP found in cataloging all 78 killings that corrections officials reported since 2007, when they started releasing slain inmates’ identities and crimes.

(snip)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/16/sex-offenders-killed-higher-rate-california-prison

If you don't why is that?

[stonecutter357]

10. I don't give two shits what happens to pedophiles ....

[Cuthbert Allgood]

5. What about assholes in general?

Should we just stop anyone we don't like from voting even if they aren't in prison? I fucking hate the God Hates Fags family. Can we keep them from voting?

[onit2day]

13. You don't believe in recovery? Can't punish the many because of the few

[stonecutter357]

19. Recovery from rapeing children ? No i do not .....

[backscatter712]

22. So you're fine with stripping black people of their right to vote on the pretense of weed offenses.

Because that's what this law really does, and what it's meant to do.

Vote suppression.

OK, I get it, you're for civil rights, except when it becomes politically inconvenient.

WAY TO SHOW YOUR PRINCIPLES!!!

[stonecutter357]

23. you're fine with stripping black people of their right to vote.No just people that rape children.

[comradebillyboy]

2. Even though the infallable and wise AOC supports inmate voting rights

it's still a losing campaign issue. What's the logic of running on an issue a large majority of Americans oppose? It's a great way to keep the republicans in power.

[onit2day]

14. 30 other countries allow prisoners to vote. It's 1 small issue of very little importance

[comradebillyboy]

21. It's an electoral loser and a distraction from higher priority issues.

Besides you need 50 state legislatures and governors to actually make it happen.

[still_one]

3. Great campaign issue, please continue pursuing, and perhaps the voters will agree

[Cuthbert Allgood]

6. I like her more every day. n/t

[peggysue2]

7. A losing position!

Period, full stop. And it doesn't matter who puts their signature on it.

[BlueFlorida]

8. ...

[ehrnst]

9. I think that it might be a good idea for her to consider taking a break from twitter

Or perhaps run them by a communications staffer who can research them before she hits that button.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-deletes-tweet-that-mistakenly-identified-fellow-democrat-as-one-of-gops-older-male-members/2019/04/25/703f095c-6789-11e9-82ba-fcfeff232e8f_story.html

[murielm99]

11. Let her prate on on twitter.

She is digging her own grave with those tweets.

Let them keep going over and over the idea about incarcerated people voting. It is a losing issue. Let the two of them lose.

Has AOC opened all her offices in her district yet? As of about a week ago, she had not. She was gallivanting and not answering questions for her constituents. Is that still true?

Our democracy is on life support. We need strong people who can address the most pressing issues.

[onit2day]

15. It's just not that big of an issue compared to all the urgent issues they stand for.

They are not "running" on this issue. It was a response to questions and a belief in people's rights. No one is focused solely on this issue. All candidates are bound to support issues you might disagree with but it's not a purity contest. Just something the media can create drama with. The Green New Deal is a continuation and expansion of FDR's new deal and contains....oh wait, I wanna talk about the right of prisoners to vote. #Not Me

[Uncle Joe]

16. So you have no rebuttal to the actual facts presented in the OP?

[ehrnst]

17. Was I supposed to?

[Uncle Joe]

18. I suppose that was too much to ask.

[ehrnst]

20. Sorry to disappoint.

[Little Star]

12. Ugh!

[loves_da_dems]

24. Brilliant analysis again

It's just another form of racist voter suppression. If she's for it, I'm for it. How I wish she could run.