Sanders: Felons Who Did ‘Something Terrible’ Should Be Able to Vote from Jail

Tuesday on CNN’s  “Newsroom,” 2020 presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said if you “are an American citizen, even if you do something terrible, even if you’re a bad person, we cannot take away your right to vote.”

Sanders said, “I think you know how politics works. I was asked that in a question. In fact, I didn’t come up with it. I asked the question, and I gave an answer. And I think we should do what Canada does, what Israel does, what many countries around the world do, and that is to separate. If somebody commits a serious crime, they’re going to go to jail, and if they are violent people, they may spend the rest of their lives in jail. That is the way it is. You pay a price when you commit a crime. But this is what I believe. At a time when the Republican Party and Donald Trump are working overtime to suppress the vote, to make it harder for people of color and poor people, young people to vote, we have got to make it clear, in my view, that if you are an American citizen, even if you do something terrible, even if you’re a bad person, we cannot take away your right to vote whether you’re in jail or whether you’ve left jail. Clearly, what Republicans are doing is trying to deny people of color the right to vote, and this is an issue I think we have to address head-on.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN