USA – Felons cannot vote, but can be elected president?

 A DNT REVELATION – In August 2022, Florida Governor Ron Disantis announced the arrest of some 20 people accusing them of voter fraud because their voting rights had not been restored “properly”.

Many of these voters had been aware of a Florida law that restored voting rights for ex-convicts, but were not aware that the Republican-led Legislature had overturned the law and requiring ex-convicts to move to restore their voting rights themselves.

Roughly 20 states passed legislation returning or expanding the right to vote to people on probation and parole or those with a felony conviction who have served their time since 2016.

But figuring out if their rights have been restored is a daunting task for the previously incarcerated who, in many states, have to navigate Byzantine rules and regulations governing their eligibility.

Often, the very agencies tasked with notifying the newly eligible of their rights fall short of their mandate. Sometimes, the agencies spread incorrect information.

Expanding on the quagmire on Democracy Now, Desmond Meade pointed out that it was the state of Florida that apporved their voting cards before their names were re-entered into the register to make it possible to cast their votes in the first place. But that did not stop their arrest.

Many experts observe that the campaign to arrest the ex-convicts for voting is a ploy to scare away ex felons who deem it too risky to even try to vote, which would keep millions away from the polls.

Meanwhile, the hopes of many that a felony conviction of former president Donald Trump would legally prevent him from running for president again were dashed by Glen Kirschner, a legal analyst on the Tyler Cohen podcast.

Kirschner pointed out that there is nothing in the books or in the United States constitution that prevented Donald Trump from running for president and winning his old job back even in the event of his criminal conviction.

“If you were sentenced to a period of incarceration, nothing in the law, nothing in the constitution that says you can’t still run for president. Indeed you could be elected from a jail cell,” Kirschner said.

Donald Trump will go down in history as the one individual who exposed the vulnerability of until-now percieved legally invinsible United States constitution.

Unfortunately, despite this exposure, the United States is too politically divided for any constitutional amendment to gain any form of traction let alone pass the arduous process of ratification by 38 states and both Houses of Congress.

These developments come at a time when autocracy appears to e making a comeback across the globe with many constitutional dictators gaining political bolstering.

DNT News

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