 His total of 913,693 votes in the 1920 campaign, when women finally had the federal right to vote, remains the all-time high for a Socialist Party candidate.The size of the vote is remarkable since Debs was at the time a federal prisoner in jail for sedition and not eligible to be president, though he promised to pardon himself if elected.Although he received some success as a third-party candidate, Debs was largely dismissive of the electoral process as he distrusted the political bargains that Victor Berger and other "Sewer Socialists" had made in winning local offices.