When first-time voter Tykarri Skillon finished studying the list of nine candidates, looking for those who shared his priorities on jobs and affordable housing, he marked his ballot and then was escorted with other voters back to their cells in the Cook County Jail.
"It feels good to have a voice," Skillon said after casting his ballot during early voting, before the race went to an April 4 runoff. "We're going home someday, so we should have a voice in our community." Despite that ruling, voting rights advocates say a "de facto disenfranchisement" exists because of mistakes over eligibility and the difficulties that detainees and prisoners face in registering or voting.
In Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, about 75% of the nearly 10,000 people held in jail are pretrial. The sheriff's department established a polling place there in 2019, working with the county elections office, and has allowed voting during the past two election cycles. Before that, detainees voted only by mail.
In California, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Capt. Roel Garcia said staff members let pretrial detainees know they can register and vote and hold voter registration drives. Garcia, who oversees the inmate reception center, said the department works with groups such as the League of Women Voters to get information to the detainees about candidates and issues on the ballot.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said in an interview that giving detainees a sense of empowerment and finding ways to get them to rethink their place in the world and to inspire them to change are constant challenges. He said engaging them as elections approach presents an opportunity to accomplish that.
"Their election IQ is off the charts," Dart said. "Participation level, turnout -- is higher than it is outside."
Ridiculous
Nope, while you are in prison your rights should be suspended.
😂
If you lose your right to freedom, then you lose your right to vote.
Geez, if you Murder Death Kill or Rape, you shouldnt be allowed to vote.
The Democrats are soft on crime. They want prisoners to vote for them. Just like the open borders. Sounds like cheating to me.
Hey if a criminal can run for president (tRump) then felons should be able to vote.
Yay more demoncrat voters yay
Criminals are better quality voting citizens than immigrants who want to distort the system to benefit china. Same for canada.
'If you have a problem figuring this out, then you ain't black'. Joe Biden
WTF Why🤦♂️🙏🏻
The Leftist Policies are cancer to society
lol by the left
Every citizen of this country should be ENCOURAGED TO VOTE‼️‼️
Lmao 🤦
Whatever happened to losing all rights and freedoms ? Lol
Hint hint the liberals are thinking about it
Ummmm... VOTING IS A PRIVILEGE. Their Rights are taken away for breaking the laws... Liberals desperate for Votes
Typical leftist voting base
Terrible idea
No. They transgressed societal norms they have no rights
🤦♀️
Nope. I've been in a jail, not a prison... you don't want them voting. Raise the age to 35 too. They're taking advantage of the naive.
Interesting cause I thought the war of drugs was to lock up inner-city ppl so that could take away their vote.... Curious to see one election results with this in place.
The democrats will take their voted from wherever they can find them .
That means that the liberals will get way more votes🤦♂️✊🏿
Democrats are desperate for more votes I see.
Of course they want the pedophiles to vote
Stupid idea
on this photo all Blacks
They had there rights taken away when they were found GUILTY of a crime, that was also their driver's license, so if they don't have ID how can they vote ? not to mention AGAIN they were charged and found GUILTY
Why. Are not enough dead people voting?
When you go to jail you lose your privileges - its a punishment. Next you're going to tell me men can be women?!?!
They have no rights that why they are in jail
Bahahaha liberals scraping the votes together to win again
I thought the whole idea was to TAKE AWAY RIGHTS ! VOTING IS A PRIVELAGE
No. You lost that right.
No! Dumb idea!
Lots of Democrat votes. The left feels the criminals are always the victim
Let's see, Dems believe in catch and release, and want criminals to vote. This is a higher level of basic gerrymandering the vote.
Shamefull
CTV are you running out of Canadian news
I need more votes
We beat them to it years ago, unfortunately.
these guys know how to read
Cause criminals really deserve the best.
Lol, anything for liberal votes.
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