During the 2022 midterms, over 4.6 million Americans were barred from voting due to a felony conviction. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people found themselves unable to cast their ballot due to logistical barriers, even if they were technically eligible to vote.
But this year, progress is being made. Across the country we're seeing widespread momentum to protect and expand voting rights for justice-involved individuals like us.
As formerly incarcerated people who are now voting rights experts, we've seen this change firsthand in our home states of Minnesota and New Mexico. While our states have radically different political realities, we've nevertheless seen growing support for legislation to protect and expand voting rights for incarcerated people and people with felony convictions.
In Minnesota, Governor Tim Walz signed into law the largest expansion of voting rights in Minnesota in half a century, restoring the right to vote to more than 46,000 formerly incarcerated people. The hard work of groups like the American Probation & Parole Association, the Minnesota Alliance on Crime, national advocates, and directly-impacted led organizations made this progress possible.
In New Mexico, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the New Mexico Voting Rights Act, legislation that will automatically restore voting rights to more than 11,000 people who are completing a felony sentence on probation or parole. Thanks to the hard work of groups like nonprofit grassroots organization OLÉ, and directly-impacted individuals, formerly incarcerated community members will no longer be discouraged by the barriers that have prevented civic engagement.
Similar legislation is being considered across the country, including an Oregon bill that would allow people with felonies to vote while incarcerated, a bill in Texas that would restore voting rights to people on probation or parole, and a Tennessee bill that would automatically restore voting rights once a sentence is completed (except for a small group of crimes).
Why are we seeing this momentum now, after all these years?
There is a growing understanding that America's deeply harmful mass incarceration policies, fueled by the racist "War on Drugs," have only destroyed families and communities. These policies have disproportionately impacted communities of color and those who are earning low incomes. It has not kept anyone safe because the goal of these policies was to disenfranchise and disempower these communities. This year marks 50 years since the United States embarked on a path of mass incarceration that has increased our prison population 500 percent since 1973.
As a result, almost 2 million individuals—a disproportionate number of them Black—are incarcerated in our nation's prisons and jails. Given what we know about the disparate treatment of Black and brown people in our criminal legal system, the U.S. is replicating the voter suppression tactics of the bygone Jim Crow era through the disenfranchisement of people with felony convictions.
This type of white supremacist policy making has always been harmful and destructive, which is why impacted people like us have been working to dismantle these structures and re-empower our communities.
We know that people who have been incarcerated will eventually return to their communities. Research shows that when people who are incarcerated retain their right to vote, they are more likely to be engaged with their communities and less likely to re-offend.
We also cannot underestimate the importance of grassroots organizing. Around the country, nonprofits and other organizations are training organizers to help garner public support for expanding and protecting voting rights for justice-impacted individuals.
Perhaps most importantly, restoring the right to vote to people who are incarcerated is simply the right thing to do. Not allowing citizens with felony convictions to vote is a clear example of taxation without representation. People who are incarcerated or who have a felony conviction deserve a say in the laws and policies that govern their lives—and the lives of their families.
The rest of the world recognizes this. No other democratic country denies so many people the right to vote due to their history with the criminal legal system. Given our country's ideals, it is disgraceful that the United States is an outlier.
We should not allow the criminal legal system to take away our most sacred right and disenfranchise a significant part of the electorate. Instead, lawmakers must focus their efforts on protecting and expanding the right to vote—to protect our democracy. At the same time, we will continue to use the power of grassroots organizing to expand and protect the right to vote.
This isn't merely a political issue. It's a matter of public safety, racial justice, and evidence-based policy. Let's build a society that represents the interests of all Americans, regardless of their history with the criminal legal system.
Justin Allen is the Inclusive Democracy Organizer with OLÉ in NewMexico.
Brian Fullman is the lead organizer with ISAIAH and Faith in Minnesota.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
