Donald Trump’s criminal conviction has sparked intense speculation about whether the judge will send him to prison. While such a sentence would not prevent him from being elected, it could call into question his right to vote on November 5.
Because paradoxically, while the conditions of eligibility for the presidency – essentially being at least 35 years old and having been born in American territory – are clear, the deprivations of civil rights for habitual offenders are particularly fluctuating from one State to another. to the other.
Judge Juan Merchan set July 11 for the sentencing of Donald Trump, the first former American president to be criminally convicted.
The Republican billionaire is a resident of Florida (southeast), a state in which convicted persons must have served their sentence and paid a series of legal fees, often as high as they are opaque, to recover their right to vote.
But in the event of a conviction in another state, Florida follows local law in this area. In this case, since the State of New York only deprives incarcerated convicts of the right to vote, Donald Trump will be able to express his vote, except in the highly improbable hypothetical case where he would be serving a prison sentence on 5 november.
In any case, the governor of Florida, Republican Ron DeSantis, announced last week that, if necessary, he would propose to the State Pardons Office to restore the ex-president’s right to vote.
But unlike the latter, “in the same situation, the ordinary offender could simply give up” on going to vote given the uncertainty over the validity of his ballot, deplores Wednesday the Washington Post in an editorial.
Out of an electorate of some 150 to 160 million citizens, between 4 and 5 million are deprived of civil rights due to criminal convictions, and there are glaring geographic and ethnic disparities, according to specialized research centers.
“The convoluted situation in which residents of the North East with criminal records can vote in federal elections while those in the South cannot is a problem in itself,” says the Washington Post.
Denouncing a “backwater of contradictory regulations,” the daily calls on Congress to legislate to restore the civil rights of convicted persons who have served their sentences throughout the country.
In addition to the presidential and legislative votes, in November, Florida voters will vote simultaneously on referendums on amendments to the State Constitution, including on the right to abortion and the recreational use of cannabis.
