Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says that people convicted of crimes should be able to vote while behind bars.

I think that is absolutely the direction we should go, Sanders told an American Civil Liberties Union volunteer who asked him about it during a town hall in Muscatine, Iowa , on Saturday.

In my state, what we do is separate. Youre paying a price, you committed a crime, youre in jail. Thats bad, he added. But youre still living in American society and you have a right to vote. I believe in that, yes, I do.

Most states disenfranchise felons. Only Sanders home state of Vermont and the state of Maine allow people to vote while incarcerated.

The ACLU is pushing 2020 presidential candidates to commit to cutting the federal prison population in half and to allow incarcerated people to vote, part of a $30 million push to shape elections and advance civil libertarian ideas over the next two years. The group has deployed thousands of its members in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina to pressure candidates on a host of civil liberties issues.

If we can get a big number of candidates to commit in a clear and unequivocal way to certain civil rights and civil liberties positions, that would be a win, Ronald Newman, the groups interim national political director, told HuffPosts Kevin Robillard last month .