• neatchee@piefed.social
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    19 hours ago

    I’m going to address only the last part: what is the value of having stupid people vote.

    The value in allowing stupid people to vote is that your opposition can’t change the definition of “stupid” to include only you and your friends.

    The law is a blunt instrument. If we enshrine in law the power for Congress to deprive people of their vote, we have agreed that depriving people “for the right reasons” is justification for doing so, and now the question simply becomes “can you convince people this is a good reason to deprive people of their ability to vote”.

    We already have this with Felons. They are a miniscule percent of the population though, so it cannot be abused to win an election. It’s bad enough the precedent kind of already exists. Expanding it would be self destructive

    EDIT: Because it’s been brought up, felons who cannot vote make up 1.1% of the US population.

    • Nouvellalia@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      We already have this with Felons. They are a miniscule percent of the population though

      Convicted felons make up almost 8% of the voting age population. That is not a “minuscule” percent. It’s enough to have changed 2/3 of all presidential elections.

      so it cannot be abused to win an election

      It is certainly actively being used to suppress Democrat power in general, and Black voting power specifically.

      • neatchee@piefed.social
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        20 hours ago

        You are wildly wrong.

        1.1% of the population cannot vote due to felony conviction.

        And those people are distributed across the political spectrum just like any other demographic.

        If you’re going to quote bullshit stats, at least post a link to some fringe blog to back it up sort of

        • Nouvellalia@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          You are too ignorant to be that smug.

          Or is it just racism? Who doesn’t know that Black people are wildly overrepresented in the prison population? Or that Black people overwhelmingly vote Democrat? Those are really basic facts.

          The 1.1% you quote, specifically only refers to the non Black population. It’s 5%-10% of the Black population. Which ends up being 2% of the total population of the country. Though it varies wildly from state to state. In some states it is as high as 6% of the total population.

          That is by no means insignificant.

          https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/locked-out-2024-four-million-denied-voting-rights-due-to-a-felony-conviction//

          • neatchee@piefed.social
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            18 hours ago

            I got my numbers from the exact same source. Your own link contradicts you. 4 million is not 2% of the US pop. 4 million is 1.1% of the population.

            I never said they were split 50/50. I said they were distributed.

            Meaning it’s not “four million votes for Democrats”

            And fuck you for assuming my ethics. I think the fact that felons can’t vote is absolutely immoral. Nobody should be deprived of their vote.

            But I don’t lie about statistics.

            • Nouvellalia@lemmy.world
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              9 hours ago

              In 2024, an estimated 4 million Americans, representing 1.7% of the voting-age population, will be ineligible to vote.

              • neatchee@piefed.social
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                3 hours ago

                2024

                I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure it’s 2026 now and our population is growing, not shrinking

                And that 4m number is down from their 2022 report (4.4m), so you can’t tell me the felon population has grown with the US population

                • Nouvellalia@lemmy.world
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                  1 hour ago

                  So you just made up a number that felt good to you, but demanded hard sources from me? I think you have done a fine job of expressing the validity of yourself as a source. Thank you.

                  • neatchee@piefed.social
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                    39 minutes ago

                    Bruh 1.1% is a lot closer to 1.7% than the literally 5% value originally commented above. Sue me for taking the latest available felon numbers and dividing by current US population