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(Washington, D.C., June 27, 2024) – this USA The United States is out of step with the rest of the world in disenfranchising large numbers of citizens based on criminal convictions, the Sentencing Project, Human Rights Watch, and the American Civil Liberties Union said in a report released today. This election year and beyond, states should reform their laws to ensure that no one is disenfranchised from voting because of a criminal conviction.
The 55-page reportOut of Time: U.S. Voting Rights Policy in Global PerspectiveThe study examined the laws of 136 countries around the world with a population of more than 1.5 million people and found that the majority (73 of the 136) never or rarely deny a person the right to vote based on a criminal conviction. Of the other 63 countries, the United States was at the most restrictive end, denying voting rights to a wider range of people overall.
“Broad voting rights are a cornerstone of rights-respecting democratic government, which is why voting rights are protected under international human rights law and why the United States should reform its anomalous position on voting rights,” he said. Alison Lyle ParkerDeputy U.S. Director at Human Rights Watch. “Voting rights and the legitimacy of America’s democracy should not depend on a criminal justice system that is built on and perpetuates discrimination.”
Felony disenfranchisement laws in the United States date back to the end of the Civil War. After formerly enslaved black people gained the right to vote through the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, state lawmakers began to expand the list of crimes defined as felonies to target black people. At the same time, states began to rescind voting rights for anyone with a felony conviction. Although the federal government formally banned some of these policies, known as Jim Crow laws, in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, felony disenfranchisement laws still exist in 48 states.
As of 2022, more than 4.4 million people in the United States have been disenfranchised due to felony convictions, and thousands more eligible voters are unable to vote because they are in prison. One in 19 Black Americans of voting age is disenfranchised, 3.5 times the rate of non-Black Americans. Conservative estimates suggest that 500,000 Latino Americans have been disenfranchised under these policies, and in some states, such as Florida, children convicted of felonies may lose their right to vote permanently before they even reach voting age.
The groups found that in recent years, some U.S. jurisdictions have taken steps to re-enfranchise people who lost their voting rights due to criminal convictions. Most U.S. states no longer disenfranchise people for life, and many no longer disenfranchise people who have been released from prison.
“In recent years, we’ve seen many U.S. jurisdictions and other countries begin to reenfranchise people who have been involved with the criminal justice system. This progress is encouraging, but there is still much work to do,” said Nicole D. Porter, Senior Advocacy Director at The Sentencing Project. “In this report, we recommend that the United States end felony disenfranchisement and expand voting rights to all people who are otherwise eligible to vote, regardless of how many times they have been involved with the criminal justice system. We also recommend that local governments establish voting centers in all correctional institutions or otherwise effectively facilitate voting — something we’ve seen in Cook County (Chicago, Illinois), Harris County (Houston, Texas), and the District of Columbia.”
Despite advances in legal qualifications to vote, significant practical barriers to voting rights for American prisoners reentering society after incarceration remain.
“While we are seeing progress in expanding rights restoration in more and more states across the U.S., voter rights still face significant challenges,” Jonathan Topaz is an attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “For example, a patchwork of restoration of rights laws has led to voter confusion regarding returning citizens’ eligibility to vote. Additionally, in many states, returning citizens are only eligible to vote after paying various legal financial obligations (such as fees, costs, fines, and/or restitution), essentially creating a pay-to-vote system. These barriers must be dismantled to ensure full citizen participation.”
Outside the United States, the trend is toward granting greater voting rights to people with criminal records. In 2014, for example, Egypt repealed a sweeping law that had barred anyone convicted of a crime from voting without time limits. In 2020, the Ugandan High Court affirmed the constitutional rights of all citizens 18 and older, including those incarcerated.
In 2022, the Tanzanian High Court ruled that a law that disenfranchised people sentenced to more than six months in prison was unconstitutional because it was too broad and inconsistent with the country’s constitution. That same year, the Chilean government removed certain barriers to voting for detainees, allowing them to vote in constitutional referendums in 2022 and 2023. Also in 2022, Nepal’s Supreme Court called for incarcerated people, including pretrial detainees and those serving sentences, to be allowed to vote in federal and provincial parliamentary elections.
Joao Luis Silva, 41, who was formerly incarcerated in Brazil, told researchers that restoring his voting rights helped him successfully reintegrate into society: “Not having the right to vote pushes you to the margins of society,” he said. “When you regain your right to vote, it’s like you’re back in society.”
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