ACLU of Puerto Rico asks to reject bill excluding prisoners from vote

The Puerto Rico chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has called on the House of Representatives' Government Affairs Committee to reject a bill that would strip incarcerated individuals of their voting rights. The proposed legislation, House Bill 1278, aims to disenfranchise those convicted of serious felonies and serving sentences of ten years or more.

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It is punishing the victim of the alleged corruption or fraud instead of the perpetrators.

Lolimar Escudero Rodríguez, the ACLU of Puerto Rico's Public Policy Attorney, stated that the bill unfairly punishes the victims of alleged corruption or fraud rather than the perpetrators. She argued that the measure improperly transfers the state's responsibility for electoral transparency and purity onto individuals deprived of their liberty, thereby curtailing their fundamental rights.

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The bill is equivalent to transferring the responsibility for ensuring the transparency and purity of electoral processes, which belongs to the State, to the elector deprived of their liberty and curtailing their right.

The bill, introduced by representatives Lisie Burgos Muñiz and Ensol Rodríguez Torres, has been referred to the Government Affairs Committee, chaired by Víctor Parés. The committee has not yet scheduled public hearings.

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To avoid alleged political-partisan irregularities in prisons, the least restrictive solution is to rigorously oversee the voting processes of the Department of Correction and the State Elections Commission, and not to eliminate the elector's constitutional right from the root.

The ACLU warned that the proposed mechanism is constitutionally flawed, regressive, and violates fundamental principles of human and civil rights. The organization contends that instead of eliminating the right to vote for certain inmates, the state should rigorously oversee voting processes within correctional facilities and the State Elections Commission to prevent alleged irregularities. The ACLU emphasized that electoral issues in prisons stem from administrative and institutional failures, not the inmates themselves.

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The vote will be universal, equal, secret, and direct.