Photo: Kena Betancur Agence France-Presse Donald Trump's criminal conviction has sparked intense speculation about whether the judge will send him to prison.
France Media Agency in Washington
Posted at 2:44 p.m.
- United States
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 born in American territory — are clear, the deprivations of civil rights for habitual offenders are particularly fluctuating from one state to the next. the other.
Judge Juan Merchan set July 11 for the sentencing of Donald Trump, the first ex-US 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 just as expensive opaque, to regain their right to vote.
But in the event of a conviction in another state, Florida follows local legislation 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 cast his vote, except in the highly improbable hypothesis that he would be serving a prison sentence on 5 November.
In any case, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis announced last week that, if necessary, he would propose to the Office of Pardons State to restore the ex-president's right to vote.
But unlike the latter, “in the same situation, the ordinary criminal could simply give up” to vote in the face of uncertainty over the validity of their ballot, deplores the Washington Post on Wednesday 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, with glaring geographic and ethnic disparities, according to specialized research centers.
“The convoluted situation in which Northeasterners with criminal records can vote in federal elections while those in the South cannot is a problem in itself,” points out the Washington Post .
Denouncing a “margin 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 the law abortion and the recreational use of cannabis.
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