On Nov. 6, an estimated 5.85 million Americans could be kept away from the ballot box due to felony convictions, according to a report by a criminal justice reform advocacy group. The Sentencing Project estimates 75 percent of disenfranchised felons are no longer incarcerated.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1974 that states have the constitutional authority to restrict voting by convicted felons.
The voting irregularities of the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections drew nationwide attention to the estimated five million Americans barred from voting by a variety of state laws that deny people with criminal records the right to vote — sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently.
Voting rights of felons and ex-felons are restricted in 48 states. Maine and Vermont are the only states that extend voting rights to incarcerated Americans.
Californians can vote only after they get off parole; however, Pennsylvanians can register to vote when they are released from prison.
Mississippi has 22 ways to disenfranchise potential voters. Stealing timber is one of them, while manslaughter is not. Disenfranchised Mississippians who want their voting rights back must get the approval of two-thirds in both houses of the state Legislature, and then go through a gubernatorial process that includes the power to veto.
If you distribute pornography in Alabama, you will be disenfranchised, according to an online article by News21.
In Kentucky, ex-cons must get the approval of the governor to restore their voting rights.
“When people are punished for crimes that they’ve committed, that should not involve forfeiting their basic rights of citizenship, which is what felony disenfranchisement does,” said Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project.
