Mataka Askari, 53, is voting in his first presidential election this year. As he puts it, he became “ensnared” in the criminal justice system when he was 10. He eventually spent 40 years behind bars, mostly because of a conviction for manufacturing and selling drugs.
Askari became eligible to vote after completing his parole three years ago, and despite recognizing the significance of this milestone, he said he’s seriously considering not voting for either presidential candidate.
Missouri is one of 15 states where individuals incarcerated for felonies are not eligible to vote until they complete their sentence and parole.
A recent report by the Sentencing Project estimates that more than 79,000 Missourians, or 1.7% of state’s eligible voters, are unable to vote due to a felony conviction.
The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization specializing in criminal justice, conducted a survey of about 54,000 people incarcerated in prisons and jails nationwide to determine their political affiliations.
In Missouri and across the country, those surveyed showed a preference toward Donald Trump. In Missouri, Joe Biden received just 11% of respondents’ votes when he was the Democratic candidate. Kamala Harris received about three times that many when she replaced him.
According to The Marshall Project, this survey disputes the “commonly held notions that people behind bars would support Democrats.”
Askari added that he feels no obligation to the Democratic Party either as a Black man or someone who has been incarcerated for a felony. Additionally, 33% of the respondents in Missouri identified as independent, which aligns with the national rate of 35%.
“It's like we've had blind allegiance to the Democratic Party when more prisons have sprang up under the Democratic Party [and] more laws incarcerated Black men have sprang up under the Democratic Party," Askari said. “And so that idea is so deeply entrenched in the psyche of American politics.”
While Askari said that he has voted twice in local elections so far, he is not impressed by either presidential candidate. Askari sees Trump as racist, but also resents Biden and Harris’s perceived entitlement to his vote.
“One thing you're not gonna do is try to make me feel obligated to somebody because they're Black,” Askari said, referring to Harris. “That's not gonna work. We are informed, we are knowledgeable and we are not going to buy into anybody’s ideas or rhetoric that guilt trips us into believing that we owe our allegiance to the Democratic party.”
As of the day before the election, Askari still had not decided who would get his vote.
