On June 15, the District of Columbia held a special election to fill a vacancy in the Advisory Neighborhood Commission inside Ward 7. These D.C. offices have a very small constituency. The typical district only has 2,000 voters. This particular district includes the prison, which has 1,400 inhabitants. All five candidates in the special election were incarcerated. Joel Caston won, with 33% of the vote. See this story. He holds meetings with constituents on zoom, and is likely to be paroled at the end of 2021. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
Maine, Vermont, and the District of Columbia are the only jurisdictions in the U.S. which allowed incarcerated felons to vote. D.C. has only done so since July 2020.
Advisory Neighborhood Commission elections are non-partisan.
Nothing like govt godfather felons elected in local areas ???
Are they *immune* in legis body crimes ???
An inspirational story for a felon like Paul Frankel.
It is not clear how many prisoners are eligible to vote. Persons serving misdemeanors or incarcerated waiting trial likely have a residential address elsewhere. Felons are ordinarily moved out of the district since the DC prison is not in the district.
There were 142 votes cast with Caston receiving 48. I could not find any results even on the DCBOE website.
In the 2020 general election, there were 23 write-in votes cast. In prior elections, the DCBOE had noted the number of undervotes, but did not do so.
The residential apartments in the district are new (a converted old hospital). I suspect they might be able to outvote the prison, if residents are interested in DC government. Residents of Anacosta who can afford $3000 rents may prefer to live elsewhere.
I do not know if it still is or not, but Anacosta was considered to be the worst neighborhood in DC, as in it had lots of poor people and lots of crime. I think it was in Ward 8. I am pretty sure it was the same Ward which elected former Mayor of DC, Marion Berry, to the city council, after he had been caught smoking crack with a prostitute.
Elect 2 USA Senators and 1 USA Rep FELONS to the gerrymander USA Congress if Devil City becomes a State —
esp via the special interest gang of convicts ???
@Andy,
There are around 50 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, each ward has a half dozen or so. Each commission has between 2 and 12 members elected from single member districts. Technically, this district was west of the Anacosta River. It is just south of RFK Stadium. They may have needed some more population for two wards east of the river, and a prison would bring in popukation with few voters.
This district had never elected a representative since being established in 2012. Caston received 23 write-in votes in 2020, but apparently had not been registered as a candidate. It appears that prison officials had organized the special election and registering all possible voters.
The apartments are quite new. I suspect the target tenant is a staffer at the Capitol or non-profit or lobbying organization. They might not necessarily consider themselves to be Washington residents particularly if they maintain a voting residence at “home”. A 2-bedroom goes for $3000. If you have children and a job, you are going to move to Maryland.
Caston is serving a life term for murder. He was transferred to the DC jail under a program to review sentences applied to minors after 15 years.