[Angus]

Originally Posted by Shasown

Its not about giving ALL prisoners the vote, its simply about removing a blanket ban on all prisoners voting.

The government needs to remove the blanket ban and then decide which way to categorise prisoners, then decide if a certain category should be allowed to vote or not.

Thats all, in the end it could mean most if not all categories of prisoners are still not allowed to vote. It could mean a judge or magistrate decides whether a prisoner will have the right to vote removed on sentencing.

Even if all prisoners were allowed to vote it would probably be done as either postal or proxy votes in which case it would have no significant effect on the outcome of an election.

If someone has committed a crime which results in a custodial sentence, ie removal from society, then they have no business voting at all, since that is a privilege that should be reserved for those of us who abide by the laws of this country; laws that are formulated and implemented by our elected government.

I don't see there is any room for negotiation, and it should certainly not be up to an individual judge to decide.