Nationwide, the formerly incarcerated often find themselves barred from voting due to myriad legal restrictions that vary from state to state. Some are working to change that, according to an article by The Associated Press.
“[Voting gives] a little bit of your strength back and a little bit of your voice back,” said TJ King, a formerly incarcerated outreach specialist with the Nebraska AIDS Project. “[B]eing able to have a say in what happens in your society, in your state, is extremely important.”
The restoration of voting rights to ex-offenders has faced much opposition in the U.S., where 4.6 million citizens have felony records, according to the Sentencing Project.
Florida voters, for example, approved a constitutional amendment favoring voting rights for felons. State lawmakers later passed amendment-weakening legislation, and the state’s election police force, touted by Gov. Ron DeSantis, arrested 20 prior felons who had been permitted to register and vote.
Nebraska law requires citizens to wait two years after completing their sentences before registering to vote, a policy blocking 7,000 ex-felons from casting ballots. State Sen. Justin Wayne has been working to change that, said the AP.
“The number-one way for a person to feel engaged in their community is to be able to vote for the leadership of that community,” Wayne said.
A 2005 law changed Nebraska’s previous lifetime ban and instituted the two-year waiting period. Sen. Wayne’s currently bill would amend the 2005 law.
For voting rights advocate Steve Smith, spokesperson for Civic Nebraska and supporter of Wayne’s measure, the fight calls to mind early American colonists’ battle cries: No taxation without representation.
“You’re civically dead and you can’t vote for the people who are levying those taxes,” he said.
Tim Watz, Minnesota’s Democratic governor, recently signed a bill that restores the voting rights of ex-felons immediately upon release; the New Mexican legislature is currently pushing a bill to do the same. Tennessee’s legislature is now mulling a similar law with exceptions for certain crimes. And an Oregon bill would permit voting even for those still incarcerated.
In all, fourteen states are currently weighing measures to restore voting to former prisoners, a prospect celebrated by those who see voting rights as a core part of rehabilitation.
