CHICAGO — The voting precinct could have been any one of hundreds throughout Chicago, except that these voters in the first round of the mayoral election were all wearing the same beige smocks. And the security at this polling place wasn’t intended to keep disrupters and campaigners out, but the voters in.
Expanding jailhouse voting is one of the latest steps to combine voting rights with criminal justice changes. Voting rights for pretrial detainees and inmates serving sentences for misdemeanors were upheld in a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1974, in a case from New York, O'Brien v. Skinner. “Being a full citizen should be the default," he said."Everybody ought to have the expectation of fully participating in a democracy."
In-person voting has multiple advantages. The mail ballot application deadline is April 25 for this year's May 6 election. Someone booked after the deadline would not be able to request a mail ballot, Hakim said. With the in-jail polling place, all detainees can vote, as well as members of the staff and public because machines are available in secure and public spaces.
“I think the in-person vote centers is something where people are watching to see how that’s going to work and whether or not they have the infrastructure, the equipment and the capacity to offer that,” Logan said. Dart said the jail helps organize classes overseen by university staff and other organizations to instruct inmates and detainees, before they vote, on everything from the electoral process to the rationale behind judicial elections. Detainees also are able to tune into televised debates between candidates.
More free democrat votes
This is how political prisoners from the wrong party are treated
Chicago, of course
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