Sen. Bernard Sanders on Monday said he wanted prison inmates to vote in elections, including convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

“I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy. Yes, even for terrible people,” Mr. Sanders said at a town hall-style forum hosted by CNN in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Mr. Sanders said he took that position despite knowing it could be turned against him by his rivals in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Restricting voting rights, even for a convicted murderer and terrorist such as Tsarnaev, he said would be a “slippery slope” toward undermining American democracy.