Prisoners in US and Russian Presidential Elections Receive Different Treatment

Keith Russell Judd, a Texas felon, became the topic in discussion in the United States on May 8 when he received 41 percent of the vote in West Virginia’s Democratic primary election whereas President Obama received 59 percent, an embarrassing fact.

Have Americans gone crazy?

The answer is no. First of all, the majority of suspects and prisoners in the United States have the right to run for president. Only a very small number of felons are deprived of that political right by the states. According to the U.S. Constitution, every native-born U.S. citizen over the age of 35 who has resided in the U.S. for a certain number of years is eligible to run for president. He can either run as a candidate for a political party — Republican and Democratic candidates are required to go through primary elections and the nominating conventions — or as a third-party or independent presidential candidate.

In the 2004 U.S. presidential election, there were 19 candidates in the final round, including the incumbent president and Republican nominee George W. Bush, Democratic nominee John Kerry and 17 third party and independent nominees. The nominee for the Green Party was David Cobb, a construction worker from California. The nominee for Peace & Freedom Party was Leonard Peltier, a felon who was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for first degree murder for shooting two FBI agents in 1975. At the time of the 2004 election, Peltier was still serving his sentence.

Judd, who is challenging Obama, was convicted and sentenced to 210 months in prison for threatening communication with intent to extort money. He is still serving his sentence right now. Judd mailed the $2,400 registration fee to the election regulation office and his certificate of announcement for his campaign for president, according to the law of West Virginia. He also filed paperwork for sales invoices with the Federal Election Commission, since he registered as a legal presidential candidate for the Democratic Party.

In his campaign, Judd has proposed some innovative ideas, such as increasing federal spending, eliminating all taxes, letting the federal government produce its own currency, etc. This is not the first time that Judd has run for president. In previous elections, Judd had had some successes; in the Democratic primary, his best showing yet, Judd finished third behind Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The state of West Virginia is famous for its coal mining, but it has always had criticism for Obama’s energy policies. In 2008, Obama gave up the presidential campaign in West Virginia and lost both the primary and final elections. Although Obama created a miracle this year and won, such a victory against a felon certainly looks bad. The moral of this story is: In the U.S., anyone can change history and any insignificant person can influence the “big people.”

“Marginal men” not only appeared in presidential elections in the U.S., but also in European countries. On March 27, 2007, a court in southern France called for suspension in a criminal case when the court found, as they were preparing to escort the “criminals” to the defendant’s position, that one of them was presidential nominee Jose Bove. Strictly speaking, Bove is a sheep farmer in the Alps who should have little relation to the politics. However, this farmer is an anti-globalization activist and agricultural unionist. His political organization is also well known worldwide. In the presidential election, he campaigned for “the people that have no voice,” drawing immense controversy. The case was suspended to allow this farmer to accomplish his presidential dream.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once the wealthiest person in Russia, has always dreamt of running for president, but he was pressed with criminal charges and sent to jail. According to Russian law, prisoners do not have the right to run for office. Khodorkovsky could have participated in the 2012 election, but at his appeal hearing in 2011, the judge found the trial to be deeply flawed and Khodorkovsky was sent to prison for a longer sentence.

(The author is a professor at Xi’an University of Politics and Law.)