Sean “Diddy” Combs can vote in the 2024 election while locked up and awaiting his trial on sex trafficking charges, The Post can confirm.
The disgraced music mogul, 55, has been behind bars in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since September after being arrested for alleged racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He’s pleaded not guilty to the charges.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Diddy and other inmates at the facility, commonly known as MDC, are eligible to vote only by absentee ballot, provided they have not been convicted. TMZ was the first to report the story.
“Pre-trial incarceration does not affect an individual’s voting rights,” a BOP rep told The Post on Tuesday. “This means if the individual was eligible to vote before entering the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP), their eligibility to vote does not change unless and until they are convicted.”
“Incarcerated individuals on pre-trial status, or ‘not convicted of a crime,’ are eligible to vote but must utilize the absentee ballot system,” the rep added.
As with all voters, inmates at MDC must be registered to vote before they can request an absentee ballot. But receiving and sending a ballot from behind bars has a few additional hurdles.
Incarcerated individuals “must use their home address as the ‘residential address,’ not their prison address when completing their voter registration application,” the rep explained. “Once they are registered to vote, they should list the FBOP facility they are incarcerated in on their absentee ballot application as their ‘mailing address.’”
Federal prisons treat “incoming mail from a Board of Election labeled ‘Official Election Mail,’ ‘Official Election Ballot,’ ‘Ballot Enclosed,’ or similar language indicating the contents of the envelope include an election ballot will be treated as special mail and the incarcerated individual will be asked to sign for receipt of the mail,” according to the official. However, “other types of election-related mail are considered general correspondence.”
Outgoing absentee ballots are “treated as special mail and will not be opened or inspected by FBOP employees,” they noted.
According to TMZ, convicted inmates that lived in Maine, Puerto Rico, Vermont or the District of Columbia before being incarcerated are able to vote while locked up, owing to a 2021 Executive Order signed by President Biden.
Diddy endorsed Biden in the 2020 election. The Post has reached out to the rapper’s reps.
Before his fall from grace, Diddy took efforts to increase voter turnout, pushing his “Vote or Die” campaign.
Diddy has tried several times to be released from jail on bail while he awaits trial, tentatively scheduled for May 2025. A judge has denied each of the star’s requests.
