Summary
Missouri state Representative Michael Davis has introduced the “Donald J. Trump Election Qualification Act,” a bill allowing individuals convicted of felonies to run for public office if otherwise qualified.
The legislation, named after Donald Trump, seeks to repeal a 2015 state law barring felons from candidacy in local or statewide elections.
Davis argues the law should align with Trump’s election as president despite his 34 felony convictions in New York.
He advocates for reintegration of felons into society, emphasizing their rights as citizens to participate in government and elections.
IMHO so should residents.
If you live here, you’re affected by politics, so you should get a say.
If you weren’t aware, there is a reason that politicians lobby to have big prisons put in their state/district: The census counts the inmates as citizens of the district to be included when making decisions about appropriating funds, but (in most states) they do not get a vote.
So you ostensibly get thousands of people who count toward your population for appropriations purposes, but you don’t need to even bother trying to woo as voters.
several states stripped non citizen residents of their local election voting rights this past election. i find it frankly disturbing
Disturbing that you have to be a citizen to vote? I thought that was a given.
Yes, I am aware that there are a few municipalities out there that allow non citizens to vote, and I’m not necessarily opposed to that, but I do find it strange.
I certainly wouln’t move to another country and expect to be allowed to vote without being a citizen!
it’s disturbing that these were people we enfranchised to vote in elections that directly effected them based on their resident status and contributions to local taxes. it’s disturbing that people actively voted to disenfrachise their neighbors, treat members of their community as if they were hostile agents illgally voting in elections they weren’t voting in. it’s disturbing how easy it was for people to frame it like it was weird for non-citizen residents to vote in local elections because in national elections you need to be a citizen when for literal millennia people have had voices in their local communities and this is actually some 20th/21st century bullshit people are pushing that residency has never been a factor in community decision making.
it’s very common in Europe. Not for national elections, but for local elections so that residents have a say in their schools, roads, etc.
It could be argued that it’s stranger for someone in Arizona to vote for Donald Trump and take away train funding in NYC, than for a Canadian citizen to vote for train funding in their own city in the US.