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.
Federal enforcement officers stand outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where Sean “Diddy” Combs is incarcerated, during an interagency operation, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Brooklyn. AP
Sean “Diddy” Combs attends a hearing in federal court in Manhattan on Oct. 10, 2024 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS“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.
Sean “Diddy” Combs can vote in the 2024 election while behind bars but only by absentee ballot, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Diddy/InstagramIncarcerated individuals “must use their home address as the ‘residential address,’ not their prison address when completing their voter registration application,” the BOP 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.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs at a Promote the Vote rally with Jay Z, Mary J. Blige and Beyoncé in 2008. Katerina OuzounovaOutgoing 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.
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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.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is seen draping his arm around a 16-year-old boy he allegedly sexually assaulted at a Hamptons white party in 1998. SDNY/MEGAFederal prosecutors have claimed that Diddy hosted “freak offs,” described as elaborate “sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded,” according to Diddy’s unsealed indictment. The hip-hop producer also allegedly plied individuals with drugs to “keep the victims obedient and compliant,” the government claimed.
After being arrested by agents from Department of Homeland Security agents and sent to MDC, Diddy has had a rough time with the prison’s food options.
The Post exclusively revealed what the rapper ate on his 55th birthday Monday, the highlights being meatballs and a “breakfast cake.”
His gastronomical woes aside, Diddy was able to enjoy another type of birthday treat — a call with his seven kids. In a video posted by Diddy’s son Justin, 30, he and his siblings sang “Happy Birthday” to their incarcerated dad on speakerphone.
“My birthday, I’m happy,” Combs told his children, sounding surprisingly upbeat. “Thank y’all for giving me this call. Thank you very much. I love y’all.”
The call featured in Justin’s video is the first time the public has heard Diddy’s voice since his imprisonment.






