Missouri introduces ‘Donald Trump’ bill making it legal for felons to run for office
Missouri introduces ‘Donald Trump’ bill making it legal for felons to run for office
New legislation would repeal a 2015 law that prevents those who were found guilty or pleaded guilty to a felony from running for local or statewide office
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.
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If they can run for office, then they can vote.
IMHO all citizens, in or out of jail should be able to vote. If one is a citizen, one should be automatically registered to vote at 18 yo.
i’d go as far as voting at 16, since that’s the age at which you can pay income tax
Wait, you don't pay income tax under 16?
I think you mostly can't work under 16.
14 in the US, sorry I wasn't thinking outside of my home country
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.
100%
Felons actually can vote in Missouri if they've completed their sentence. This includes parole and probation terms.
Permanent disenfranchisement is actually less common than people think. It's still too common by far, and we need to revisit the reasoning for disenfranchisement while incarcerated or on probation, but in most of the country a felony doesn't prevent voting permanently.
Trump didn't complete his sentence
I'm not super interested in defending trump or Missouri, but he was neither sentenced in general nor convicted of a felony, or running for office, in Missouri.
So other than the name and inspiration, none of this even applies to him.
I was just pointing out that in Missouri, felons aren't completely disenfranchised. Yay marginally better civil rights than a lot of people assumed!
Are you saying Donald Trump wasn't on the ballot in Missouri?
He was indeed not running for a state or local office in Missouri.
“A lot of people don’t don’t think about the fact that Donald Trump, if he met all the other requirements, if he was a Missouri resident, could not run for state representative or state Senate,” Davis told the Missouri Independent.
“He would be precluded from running for these offices but was able to be re-elected president of the United States. So I think that at least causes people to start thinking about the issue a little more than they might otherwise,” Davis added.
The law in question did not apply to him, and the bill was just named referencing him.
The entire thing is moot. All I was saying is that Missouri doesn't permanently disenfranchise felons, and the law being discussed didn't apply to trump for a variety of reasons.