First jail-wide, in-person voting held at Cook County Jail
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Volunteers organized the first jail-wide, in-person voting process at Cook County Jail Saturday.
Organizers said 94 percent of inmates at the jail are eligible to vote. The program is part of an effort to give more people in the criminal justice system the ability to vote.
Reverend Jesse Jackson participated in early voting in the hopes of leading by example. Early voting began last week for Cook County.
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” - John Adams
Posts: 29408 | Location: In the red hinterlands of Deep Blue VA | Registered: June 29, 2001
I understand the Illinois Ex-Governors Association meets at the penitentiary.
Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.
When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson
"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005
I understand the Illinois Ex-Governors Association meets at the penitentiary.
With the exception of Blago, most ex governors were inmates at Oxford FCI. It was not unusual to see limos heading there on visiting weekends. It was also possible to see the former Governors planting flowers along the roads.
Posts: 18095 | Location: Stuck at home | Registered: January 02, 2015
Originally posted by egregore: A felony conviction should strip one of one's voting rights, but not every inmate is in there on a felony.
Yes, they can request an absentee ballot just like anyone else who can't make it to the polls.
It's inconvenient for me to leave work to go vote, but I don't see them setting up a voting booth at my place of work. Also, if my work sends me out of town on election day I have to have the foresight to request a ballot.
If they don't like having to take responsibility for their right to vote maybe they shouldn't commit a crime before the next election.
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” - John Adams
Posts: 29408 | Location: In the red hinterlands of Deep Blue VA | Registered: June 29, 2001