Sean “Diddy” Combs exercises his right to vote in the 2024 US election even while in custody.
The 55-year-old music mogul was able to vote via an absentee ballot sent to him at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York. He is believed to be registered in California or Florida.
In addition to Diddy, many other detainees have also used this alternative. Many inmates who met the voting criteria before being incarcerated exercised their right to vote through the absentee voting system while in prison.
According to a representative from the Federal Bureau of Prisons who spoke to The New York Post, “Pretrial detention does not affect an individual’s right to vote.”
They continued, “This means that if an individual was eligible to vote before being detained by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP), their ability to vote will not change unless and until they condemned.”
“Individuals detained in pretrial or ‘non-convicted’ status are eligible to vote but must use the absentee voting system.”
Before inmates at MDC can request an absentee ballot, they must first complete the voter registration process. However, implementing the procedures for sending and receiving ballots while detained has its challenges.
The representative explained that incarcerated people “must use their home address as their ‘residential address,’ not their prison address, when completing their voter registration application.”
“After registering to vote, they should list the FBOP facility in which they are confined on their absentee ballot application as their ‘mailing address.’”
Pursuant to federal prison regulations, any mail received from the Board of Elections marked as “Official Election Mail,” “Official Election Ballot,” “Ballot Enclosure,” or otherwise Similar wording indicates the presence of a ballot that would be classified as special mail.
In such cases, the detainee will have to sign for the letter.
On the other hand, election-related mail with different labels is classified as general correspondence.
Meanwhile, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which oversees the Brooklyn correctional facility, informed TMZ that inmates from Maine, Puerto Rico, Vermont and the District of Columbia can register and vote even during the period of detention, as a result of the 2021 Executive Order signed by the President. Joe Biden, who Diddy endorsed in 2020.
Tags Diddy, Sean Combs