Is Voting a Right or a Privilege?

[Schiff for Senate]

It's a right, first of all, though there should be some responsibility with voting. I mean, one shouldn't take voting lightly, but that still doesn't mean that voting is a priviledge that only some people should have, by any means. So it's, if you will, both a right and a priviledge - it should be respected and taken seriously, but that doesn't mean disenfranchising voters (though I wouldn't mind banning the January 6 rioters from voting ever again).

And I should add that I think it's funny that the less educated people favour restrictions on voting - if there was an educational limit on voting, and you had to pass some test (which, of course, was deemed unconstitutional by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but still) to vote, they'd be the first ones to get disenfranchised. I'd think they were more #populist on the issue, and would favour more voting rights, whereas it would be the more educated people who would think of voting as something that carries responsibilities. The lesser educated white voters of the 1800s (Jackson voters) actually favoured expanded voting rights (for all white men) - probably the one issue they were right on, and Trump voters with similar demographics (poorly educated white voters) couldn't get even that issue right. Of course, today's supporters of the idea that 'voting is a privilege' probably favour more voting rights than the 1830s' supporters of 'more voting rights', because the broadest and most radical definition of extended voting rights then was to include all white men (women and nonwhites were still excluded, even under the most ambitious 'voting rights' vision).

[Schiff for Senate]

A right and I'm not entirely sure why convicted criminals shouldn't vote.  What are they going to do, vote in someone that will legalize all crime?

I agree that at a conclusion of a sentece, depending on the crime, ex-criminals should be allowed to vote (if a 22-year-old was arrested for carrying cannabis that shouldn't stop them from voting 50 years later - on the other hand, a convicted murderer should be forever prohibited from voting). But during their sentece, they shouldn't be treated the same as everyone else - they still committed a crime, and that shouldn't be ignored or minimized. They're in jail, and that should be taken seriously. People in jail should, for the time of their sentence, be treated differently from others. It's not necessarily a question of what practical effect it would have, but a moral question of whether or not someone convicted of wrongdoing should be allowed to exercise voting rights during their punishment. If you keep on expanding rights for people in jail, then you're minimizing the effect of their sentence. It's not supposed to be fair - it's supposed to disincentivize the person from committing a crime again. Of course, the right takes it too far by wanting to keep ex-felons from voting ever again.