M.D. Kittle writes for the Federalist about a questionable element of Democrats’ electoral strategy.
While it may sound like a noble cause, it’s not just about the “right to vote” for the big monied interests behind these “reenfranchisement” efforts. It’s about voting for the right people.
Felons cleared to vote (and some not cleared) have long been a reliable bloc of voters for Democrats. A 2019 study by Ragnar Research Partners found that in Florida, for instance, “Currently incarcerated felons are more than three times as likely to be registered Democrats … or unaffiliated … than Republicans. Ex-felons are four times as likely to be Democrats … or unaffiliated.” In the swing states expected to determine the outcome of the rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, getting felons and those facing felony charges to the polls could mean the difference between the left and the right guiding U.S. policy for the next four years.
Perhaps then it comes as little surprise that incumbent President Joe Biden is using his constitutionally suspect Executive Order 14019 to turn out the felon vote, using the full force of the federal government to do so. And the well-funded leftist groups working behind the scenes to register felons and would-be felons appear to be assisting in the effort to win an election for Biden and his soft-on-crime political allies in Congress, state legislatures, and prosecutor offices around the country.
“The left caters to the criminal caucus,” said Parker Thayer, investigative researcher at the Capital Research Center, a Washington, D.C.-based charity and activist tracker that operates the InfluenceWatch database. “That was the purpose of the ‘reforms’ we saw in 2020. They have a voting base there.”
In most states, felons lose their right to vote until they complete their sentences and post-sentence requirements to restore eligibility. As the National Conference of State Legislatures reports, Maine, Vermont and the District of Columbia grant felons the right to vote even while in prison.
