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Advocates Applaud House Push to Restore Voting Rights to Formerly Incarcerated People
"After 50 years of mass incarceration in America—and 50 years of stripping voting rights from justice-impacted individuals—it's time for a better path forward," said one advocate.
Jul 28, 2023
Voting rights and criminal justice reform advocates on Thursday applauded U.S. House Democrats for reintroducing legislation to end the disenfranchisement of 3.5 million people who are barred from voting in federal elections due to their past prison sentences—part of what Rep. Valerie Foushee, a co-sponsor of the bill, called the country's "long history of weaponizing incarceration status."
Foushee (D-N.C.) was one of six Democrats to introduce the Democracy Restoration Act, led by Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas.).
The bill would end the denial of federal voting rights to people who have been incarcerated for felony convictions and would provide outreach to people with past convictions about their newly restored right to participate in elections, eliminating what the Sentencing Project called "the complicated patchwork of state laws that creates a lack of uniform standards for voting in federal elections, exacerbates racial disparities in access to the ballot box, and contributes to confusion and misinformation regarding voting rights."
Twenty-four states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico currently allow formerly incarcerated people to vote in state and local elections, but they cannot participate in federal elections. People on felony probation or parole cannot vote in 25 states, and in 11 states a conviction can lead to lifetime disenfranchisement.
"There's no justification for denying people who have paid their dues a voice in our democracy," said co-sponsor Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.), who spoke at a press conference on the bill on Thursday.
Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), and Greg Casar (D-Texas) are also co-sponsors of the House bill, while Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) introduced the legislation in the Senate in May.
"It's in our values to say that a second chance is part of America," said Cardin at the press conference.
Recent polling from Stand Up America, the Sentencing Project, and other groups has shown that a majority of Americans believe the right to vote should be extended to all Americans regardless of past incarceration—a move that Nicole D. Porter of the Sentencing Project noted would end the United States' status as "an international outlier."
"After 50 years of mass incarceration in America—and 50 years of stripping voting rights from justice-impacted individuals—it's time for a better path forward," said Porter, senior director of advocacy for the group. "By empowering justice-impacted people with the right to vote, we strengthen the principles of fairness and equality in our democracy. That's why The Sentencing Project will continue to support legislative efforts that protect and expand the right to vote for all people impacted by the criminal legal system, including those currently in prison."
A policy brief by the Sentencing Project earlier this year explained how enfranchising formerly incarcerated people is a public safety measure, helping to reduce recidivism, as well as a way to advance criminal justice reform.
"Voting is among a range of prosocial behaviors in which justice-impacted persons can partake, like getting a college education, that is associated with reduced criminal conduct," the April report read. "Among Americans with a history of criminal legal system involvement, having the right to vote or the act of voting is related to reduced recidivism. The re-entry process after incarceration improves because restoring voting rights gives citizens the sense that their voice can be heard in the political process, and contributes to building an individual's positive identity as a community member."
Stand Up America founder and president Sean Eldridge said the bill is a step away from "a racist relic of the Jim Crow era."
"By introducing legislation to restore voting rights, Democrats in Congress are taking an important step toward acknowledging the injustice of these laws and building momentum to rectify them," said Eldridge. "Americans returning to their communities should have a say in who represents them in government and the policies that affect their lives—from the quality of their kids' education to access to parks and clean water—just like everyone else."
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'Big Win for Democracy' as SCOTUS OKs Redrawing of Rigged Louisiana Congressional Map
"Gerrymandering has been denying Black Louisianans fair representation—but that is about to change," said one voting rights group.
Jun 26, 2023
Democracy defenders in Louisiana and beyond on Monday applauded the U.S. Supreme Court for allowing the redrawing of a racially gerrymandered congressional map—a move that will add a second majority-Black district in the Southern state where 1 in 3 residents are African-American.
The Supreme Court rejectedArdoin v. Robinson, Republican Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin's appeal of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Louisiana's congressional map and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The justices sent the case back to the lower court.
The justices had planned on hearing Ardoin, but reversed course and lifted a temporary hold they had placed on the lower court's order to create a second majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana, where 1.5 million of 4.6 million residents are African-American. There are six congressional districts in the Pelican State.
"Louisiana voters deserve fair maps that guarantee equal representation—and it looks like we're going to get them," the Louisiana Democratic Party tweeted in response to the news.
Congressman Troy Carter, A Democrat who represents Louisiana's sole majority-Black congressional district, called the Supreme Court's move "great news" for the state.
"This decision shows that in a healthy democracy fair and equitable representation matters, whether to the people of Louisiana or anywhere else in the world," Carter tweeted.
Center for American Progress Action, a progressive policy institute, hailed what it called "great news for our democracy."
One year ago, the Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority voted 6-3 to issue an order reinstating the racially rigged congressional map after Louisiana Republicans applied for emergency relief on grounds that Ardoin "presents the same question as" an Alabama case, Allen v. Milligan.
The high court granted the Republican request and paused the ruling blocking Louisiana's map pending the outcome of Allen. Earlier this month, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the court's three liberal justices in siding with Black voters who challenged Alabama's GOP-gerrymandered congressional map.
"Today's decision follows on the heels of the court's 5-4 ruling earlier this month holding that Alabama also has to redraw its congressional district maps to include a second majority-minority district," said University of Texas School of Law professor and CNN Supreme Court Steve Vladeck.
"And like the Alabama ruling, it doesn't explain why the court nevertheless had issued emergency relief to allow Louisiana to use its unlawful maps during the 2022 midterm cycle," he added. "It puts the court's interventions last year into ever-sharper perspective."
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