Weekly Voting Rights News Update
By Erin Ferns
"...Too many people do not understand or exercise their voting rights, and as a result, entire segments of our population - and especially formerly incarcerated individuals - are being underrepresented at the polls on Election Day." - New Jersey Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark)
Voter registration may seem like an easy task to most Americans, but only about 68 percent of the total eligible voting population was registered in 2006. While that number is almost certain to rise this year, plenty of obstacles remain that can keep willing and eligible voters off the rolls. We know from the recent voter caging scandal in Michigan, for example, that many citizens are not aware that they need to update their registrations every time they change residence. With 14 percent of Americans changing residence between 2005 and 2006 (and an even higher percentage among minority, low-income, and young residents), lack of clarity and transparency in election administration can hamper voter participation and silence the voices of already disadvantaged communities.
If getting and staying on the rolls seems complicated for the average American, imagine what it is like for a citizen with a criminal history. The U.S. is the only country in the world that permits states to permanently disenfranchise people even after they have already served their sentence and are trying to reintegrate into society. Policies on felony re-enfranchisement among the 50 states are so inconsistent as to create confusion among, not only those former offenders who wish to regain the right to vote, but also the very officials charged with implementing the laws. While some states, recognizing that ex-offenders have paid their debt to society, allow for reinstatement of voting rights, most fail to inform ex-felons of the rules and procedures that must be followed in order to have their vote restored. The result is a network of misinformation that discourages some legally eligible voters from registering to vote and imposes undue restrictions on others during the registration process. "It's important that the public, including those who have been incarcerated, know their voting eligibility rights," says New Jersey Sen. Ronald Rice, (D-Newark) in the North Jersey Record Wednesday.
Many critics of laws barring felons from voting point out that these restrictions disproportionately affect minority communities. Just as Whites are overrepresented in the general electorate (with Blacks and Latinos lagging behind by at least 10 percentage points in registration rates), people of color are overrepresented in the convicted felon population, rendering them - and the communities where they return to rehabilitate - most affected by felon disenfranchisement laws. According to a 2007 Project Vote report:
"The disenfranchisement rate of African-American men is seven times the national average at 13%. Four of every five drug offenders in state prison are African-American or Latino. However, this number is largely due to inconsistencies in prosecution and sentencing and is not indicative of greater drug use in either community. Research has shown that poor and/or non-white persons are more likely to be arrested, charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison than their wealthier, white counterparts. This over-representation in prisons results in an under-representation of these same groups at the polls."
Perhaps in recognition of the patchwork of state felon voting laws and their affect on about five million Americans who will not be able to vote on November 4 due to felony convictions, U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) introduced a bill that would "secure the Federal voting rights of all people who have been released from incarceration." The bill, H 7136, was referred to the House Judiciary committee on Sept. 26. Meanwhile, several key states battle with felon voting issues, ranging from misinformation to halting voter registration drives for eligible voters in recent weeks. These key states include Virginia (which as one of the country's strictest felon voting laws), New Jersey, Alabama, and Maryland.
On Wednesday, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit challenging Alabama prison commissioner Richard Allen's decision to stop voter registration drives for inmates, according to the Associated Press.
"Alabama law allows inmates who have not been convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude to vote," according to the AP report. However, a voter registration drive led by Rev. Kenneth Glasgow was halted on Sept. 18 after state Republican Party chairman, Mike Hubbard, filed a complaint.
Glasgow, a "onetime criminal and founder of a ministry called The Ordinary People Society" was featured in the New York Times for his efforts to help people with criminal records regain the right to vote in Alabama. Many people, he said, were unaware of the "loophole" in state law allowing some nonviolent convicted felons to register to vote.
In 2003, Marty Connors, then state GOP chairman, opposed the passage of a statute that made it "easier for some former felons to regain their voting rights by side-stepping a lengthy and backlogged pardon process." The GOP's objections were openly partisan: "As frank as I can be, we're opposed to it because felons don't tend to vote Republican," Connors said.
"There would be a lot of difference in our legislators, our elected officials and our presidents that we've had," Glasgow said of former felons not only regaining their right to vote, but being informed that they have such rights.
Meanwhile, in Baltimore, Md., a confusing letter sent this year to former felons who attempted to register to vote has left almost 90 percent of them still pending approval, according to Brendan Kearney of the Maryland Daily Record.
"The 'Dear Applicant' letters require convicted felons to prove they are eligible to register under a 2007 law that restores the franchise to many people who have completed their sentences. However, the letter sent out by the Baltimore City Board of Elections included no details about how, when or where the recipient could respond."
With voter registration deadlines looming, the president of NAACP's Baltimore branch, Marvin L. 'Doc' Cheatham Sr., made a "threat to sue over restrictions on ex-offenders' voting rights." However, late last week after a meeting with the Office of the Attorney General, he said "he will pursue a legislative solution in the next General Assembly session" instead.
"We need to get rid of the letter," he said.
"I think it has to be finally approved by the attorney general's office but I think everyone was in agreement that people should not be excluded from the election because of miscommunications," said ACLU of Maryland legal director, Deborah Jeon.
In Virginia, the past two Democratic governors have relaxed the state's strict felon voting law, which permanently disenfranchises convicted felons. This has led to the restoration of about 6,000 former felons, according to Michael Paul Williams of the Richmond Times-Dispatch Tuesday.
"But that represents a trickle compared with the splash that Republican Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida created last spring when he restored voting rights to some 115,000 ex-offenders," Williams wrote. "In 2005, Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa issued an executive order restoring voting rights to 50,000 ex-offenders."
The advocacy group the Sentencing Project estimates that 377,000 Virginians have been disenfranchised for committing felonies since 2004. More than 200,000 of the disenfranchised are Black - 20 percent of the total Black population in the state, according to Times-Dispatch writer Tyler Whitley on Monday.
The state is one of two last week to draft felon re-enfranchisement bills that would restore voting rights to certain felons. Virginia's bill, SJR 273, was prefiled for the 2009 legislative session by Sen. Yvonne Miller (D-Norfolk), who has introduced similar legislation providing voting rights for nonviolent criminals in the past. In his column Williams points out that the effort is likely to fail-"unless the House of Delegates changes dramatically, the outcome won't"-but is the only way to ensure that the voting rights of felons are not subject to the whims of any given governor. "Virginia's constitution was amended long ago to suppress the black vote. Undoing this wrong will require Virginia to go through that document, rather than around it," he writes.
In New Jersey, the other state to file a bill relating to felon voting rights ,state senator Ronald Rice reminded voters in the North Jersey Times to register before the Oct. 14 deadline "regardless of the mistakes made in the past." The state bill, A 3198 would provide voting rights and voter registration assistance to parolees and probationer's. Current law restores voting rights after completion of sentence, including probation and parole.
"The act of voting is the single greatest thing [individuals can] do to take part in government and in public discussion of important policy decisions," said Sen. Rice. "If we are going to be serious about the rehabilitation of criminal offenders, then we need to reintegrate them into every possible aspect of society to which they are entitled. Getting the right to vote restored would go a long way toward attaining that goal."
Quick Links:Restoring Voting Rights to Former Felons. Project Vote. January 2007.
Felon Voting Rights By State. Project Vote. Sept. 2008.
In Other News:
Law puts thousands of Florida voter IDs in question - Miami Herald
TALLAHASSEE -- About 3,200 new voters are in the cross-hairs of Florida's new and controversial ''no-match'' law, which could force them to cast provisional ballots on Election Day if officials can't confirm their identities.
State GOP challenges eligibility of voters - Missoulian
The state Republican Party this week challenged the eligibility of 6,000 registered Montana voters in seven counties historically considered Democratic strongholds.
In Ohio, Voter Registration Conflict Is Brewing - Day to Day, NPR
Early voting starts Tuesday in Ohio, but that doesn't mean that the process will go smoothly.
Students Fight for Their Right to Vote - The Nation
Last week was both a boon and a bust to student voting rights, as Congress held a hearing on safeguarding students' right to vote, and troublesome allegations surfaced about swing state voter intimidation.
Erin Ferns is a Research and Policy Analyst with Project Vote's Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD).
Voting in this country is a serious disaster. We need the willpower and leaders to fix it.