As has been well-established on numerous accounts, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is rocking the orange inmate attire at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. The embattled and disgraced Bad Boy Records founder is locked up behind bars on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. However, he has yet to be convicted in the federal case, which retains his right to vote in California.
US Election Day has come around way before the mogul’s scheduled 2025 criminal trial, which leads to the obvious question: Will he be voting this time around? It remains unclear if he is, in fact, going for it. Nonetheless, TMZ has lifted the lid on how he can go about the now-complicated action given his current circumstances.
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Can Diddy vote in the 2024 US election?
The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ officials behind the Brooklyn detention centre that has locked up Combs told the tabloid that the severely accused hip-hop personality can exercise his civic duty by using an absentee ballot mailed from the federal jail.
For this to go through, the incarcerated music artist would have to request an absentee ballot to vote in his registered state, possibly Florida or California.
Diddy wouldn’t be the only inmate to opt for this alternative. The Bureau of Prisons reportedly established that many inmates who were eligible to vote before being put behind bars can still do so through the vote absentee from jail system. The only catch is that they shouldn’t be convicted.
How can inmates vote?
The US Vote Foundation website also declares, “If you are incarcerated for a misdemeanour you should check voter registration status, register to vote if necessary, and request an absentee ballot from your county elections office.
You can vote while awaiting trial for any charge, even if incarcerated, as long as you have not lost your right to vote due to a prior conviction.”
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In addition, the BOP told the outlet that a 2021 Executive Order signed by sitting President Joe Biden grants convicts who lived in Maine, Puerto Rico, Vermont, or the District of Columbia before their arrest the opportunity to register and vote.
In-person voting in LA County jails
In a head-turning development, every Los Angeles County jail had in-person voting access this year for the first time. The National Association of Counties announced in January, “For the first time, eligible incarcerated individuals in all Los Angeles County jails will have the opportunity to vote in-person during the March primary and November election as part of the county’s Free the Vote initiative, which aims to increase civic engagement in its justice-involved population.
Each county jail will operate a Flex voting center during scheduled time blocks throughout the state’s 10-day voting period where inmates can register to vote on-site and fill out their ballot through a streamlined process, made possible through a partnership between the county’s Sheriff’s Office and Registrar Recorder’s Office.”