"This is not a radical idea. Vermont and Maine allow inmates to vote and more than 30 nations — including Israel, South Africa, and Canada — also understand that voting rights for all citizens is a basic principle of democracy. When we look at the history of why our country has banned incarcerated people from voting, we must understand that the efforts to rob citizens of their voting rights was a legacy of slavery and continuing racist attitudes post-Jim Crow. After the ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, which extended civil and legal protections to formerly enslaved people, many state governments rushed to create new felonies to put black people in jail and then institute lifetime disenfranchisement as a way to protect their own privilege and power."
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Activists from the United StatesColumnists from the United StatesAnti-war activistsLGBT rights activistsHuman rights activists
Original Language: English
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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders
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Bernie Sanders
politician, journalist, carpenter
1941 · United States
415 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Bernie Sanders →
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