They might be felons in the can, but Sen. Bernie Sanders said they should still have access to the ballot box.

The Democratic presidential candidate was asked during a town hall in Iowa about whether prisoners should retain the right to vote while behind bars — as his home state Vermont and Maine allow.

“I think that is absolutely the direction we should go,” Sanders told the crowd Saturday at a middle school gym in Muscatine, the Des Moines Register reported.

“In my state, what we do is separate. You’re paying a price, you committed a crime, you’re in jail. That’s bad,” he said. “But you’re still living in American society and you have a right to vote. I believe in that, yes, I do.”

The issue came up because Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, has been pushing a constitutional amendment that would restore the voting rights of felons after they have completed their sentence.

The measure was blocked by the Republican-controlled state Senate.

Iowa and Kentucky allow felons to vote only if they get the permission of the governor.

Felons in 14 states and the District of Columbia lose voting rights while in prison but reclaim them after serving their sentences.

In another 22 states, felons lose voting rights while incarcerated but regain them after completing their sentences and parole or probation.

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