Tarra Simmons lays out why she championed a new law that restores voting rights to people on probation and parole once she joined Washington’s state legislature.
People with felony convictions who aren’t in prison can now vote. State elections could bring further progress or a sharp retreat.
An amendment to end felony disenfranchisement failed in the House of Representatives. But the measure shows how far the fight has come in a short number of years.
The reform would be a historic step for national efforts to end felony disenfranchisement. Prison is not about “the loss of citizenship,” said one incarcerated advocate.
This year of crises, revisited: Nearly 90 state-level bills and initiatives. 16 themes. 7 maps.
Most members of the state’s congressional delegation now say they support restoring voting rights to incarcerated people. Will Tuesday’s primaries elect more proponents?
Governor Kim Reynolds’ executive order restores the voting rights of tens of thousands of people. But it will also leave many Iowans disenfranchised, and little time remains before the November election.
Washington, D.C., is joining Maine and Vermont in allowing incarcerated people to vote.
In states that restored people’s voting rights, many public agencies aren’t doing enough to assist, and the pandemic slowed grassroots plans to pick up the slack.
New law changes where incarcerated people are counted for redistricting. Advocates vow to push against felony disenfranchisement next year.
A New York bill would abolish felony disenfranchisement. That would mean law enforcement is no longer the arbiter of who gets to vote.
Colorado and Nevada will now restore voting rights upon release from incarceration, amid nationwide efforts against disenfranchisement.
The Appeal: Political Report talks to Matthew Dunlap, the secretary of state of Maine, about how prison voting works there.
Colorado and Nevada are moving toward reform, while other legislatures have proved less receptive so far to proposals to expand voter eligibility.
In a Q&A, Bernie Sanders explains why he wants to abolish felony disenfranchisement. “The right to vote is inalienable to my mind whether you’re in jail or any place else,” he said.
Criminal justice reform in the states: Virginia will reinstate driver’s licenses, Iowa kills voting rights bill, South Dakota blocks effort to restrict probation
With the legislative path sidelined once more, could the state emulate Florida in narrowing felony disenfranchisement?
Two states move to protect immigrants, marijuana meets varying fates, Oklahoma tackles sentencing reform
“People don’t lose their citizenship just because they’re sentenced to prison,” said one advocate.
Advocates pursue many fronts to push for incarcerated individuals to have electoral voice, two decades Massachusetts restricted the franchise.
A legislative committee in the state House voted 5 to 3 to move HB 57 forward without a recommendation.
Can New Mexico provide a new model for ambitious voting-rights reform?
But it will still retain a system that is harsh by national standards and will disenfranchise large numbers of residents.
“What kind of state is Kentucky, truly?” asked an organizer. “What kind of democracy, if you take away folks, Black and brown folks?”
Mississippi has inherited the dubious distinction of being the state that disenfranchises the highest share of its residents.
Voters overwhelmingly approved measures to restore voting rights and enable bolder sentencing reform.
Voters could overhaul Florida’s regime of mass disenfranchisement.
Democrats select Rachael Rollins, who faces independent Mike Maloney in November Daniel Nichanian Boston voters selected Rachael Rollins as the Democratic nominee for district attorney of Suffolk County. In so doing, they shifted away from the record of outgoing DA Dan Conley, a Democrat who has resisted criminal justice reform. Rollins defeated Gregory Henning (the candidate endorsed […]