Trump could lose voting rights if convicted
Former President Donald Trump wouldn’t be prevented from returning to the White House even if he gets convicted of a felony in any of his four criminal trials. But there’s a chance the presumptive Republican nominee’s legal troubles could prevent him from casting a ballot for himself in November.
Though the U.S. Constitution doesn’t explicitly bar felons from serving as president, a number of states do restrict felons’ voting rights. In Florida, where Trump lives, a felon’s right to vote is determined by the rules in the state where they received the conviction.
The former president faces 88 criminal charges across four cases in New York, Georgia and Washington, D.C. A patchwork of criminal justice laws governs when convicted criminals can vote in each of these places.
Austin Sarat, a professor at Amherst College who has studied felon disenfranchisement, pointed to “the multi-jurisdictional quality” of Trump’s trials as making his situation “particularly complicated.”
But Sarat and other experts emphasized that Trump’s situation isn’t entirely out of the ordinary. Millions of Americans with felony convictions have lost their right to vote. And in states like Florida, where disenfranchisement laws are particularly complicated, many felons have trouble determining whether they can cast a ballot.
Trump has opposed efforts to streamline these laws and restore rights to felons in the past, including in Florida. The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment about whether the ex-president’s views have evolved on the issue since his felony charges, or about the actions he would take if he loses the right to vote.
Some advocates, including Neil Volz, deputy director of the Florida Rights Restitution Coalition, say they believe Trump’s trials could bring positive change.
“It’s like the O.J. trial meets NPR,” said Volz, who is a former felon now pushing for rights restoration. “What we are seeing is people being more educated on some of the challenges with the criminal justice system and being more open to talking about how we can do things different.”
New York hush money trial
The chances of Trump losing his voting rights in the New York case are slim. The criminal trial, now underway, is the first in history of a former president. It alleges that Trump falsified business records to hide a hush money payment to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election.
Trump faces 34 felony counts in the case. If he is found guilty, legal experts have suggested that his sentence would fall somewhere between probation and four years in prison. The expresident has pleaded not guilty and is almost certain to appeal a conviction, a process that could keep him out of incarceration for months as he awaits a final judgment.
That leaves just a small chance that Trump will lose his vote for the 2024 election as a result of the case. New York removes a felon’s right to vote only during the time that they are in prison. Felons who are living in the community remain eligible to participate in elections.
In other words, Trump would need to be incarcerated at the time of the November election to lose his right to vote. And a prison sentence for the expresident could look different than it would for a normal person, considering the around-the-clock Secret Service protection he receives.
Trump could also lose his right to vote in the federal case over his handling of classified documents. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith charged him with violating the Espionage Act and conspiring to obstruct justice for knowingly retaining hundreds of classified national defense records.
The case will take place in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida – meaning that if Trump is convicted, he’ll be subject to the Sunshine State’s felon disenfranchisement laws.