“This might be my 1st time voting,” Tyson mentioned in a tweet Tuesday. “I by no means thought I might due to my felony file. I am proud to lastly vote.”
He shared the information along with his followers together with a hyperlink to register to vote and the hashtag #NationalVoterRegistrationDay.
The legendary boxer was convicted and sentenced to 6 years in jail on one depend of rape and two counts of deviant sexual conduct in 1992. He was launched from jail after serving three years.
The conviction stripped Tyson of his proper to vote.
Many state legal guidelines all through the US rule felons ineligible to vote. More than 6 million Americans — about 2.5% of the nation’s voting-age inhabitants — couldn’t vote within the 2016 election as a result of felony data, in response to an estimate by The Sentencing Undertaking, a analysis group that advocates for enhancements to the legal justice system.
There was a rising motion towards restoring convicted felons the appropriate to vote on a state-by-state foundation in the previous few a long time, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Tyson’s residence state of Nevada signed a law to revive voting rights to all individuals convicted of felony upon launch from jail in 2019, which is able to permit him to take part on this yr’s election.
