Documents
- PowerPoint Presentation – Criminalization of the Ballot Box – Mitchell Brown (pdf)
- PowerPoint Presentation – Criminalization of Voting: Fighting Voter Suppression Through Vigorous Defense – Blair Bowie (pdf)
A criminal conviction can lead to permanent loss of voting rights. Disenfranchising millions of Americans due to a criminal conviction undercuts the promise of democracy and severely weakens the power of communities, particularly those most harmed by the legal system, to meaningfully shape the political bodies that are supposed to represent them. According to The Sentencing Project, 1 in 16 African Americans of voting age is disenfranchised, a rate 3.7 times greater than that of non-African Americans.
On the rise is criminal prosecutions target people for voting or attempting to vote. Many states have enacted laws that in some way disenfranchise voters who have been convicted of a felony. The patchwork of state laws governing the revocation and restoration of voting rights is often complex and obscure, making the restoration of voting rights inaccessible for many with felony convictions. Many individuals with past felony convictions who have earnestly sought to restore their voting rights, disproportionately people of color, are being targeted and prosecuted on voter fraud charges due to the often due to confusing and conflicting information about their voting status.
This webinar features Blair Bowie, Director of the Restore Your Vote Project at the Campaign Legal Center; and Mitchell Brown, Senior Counsel, Voting Rights Section for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
General Information & Resources
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“Jim Crow II, A history of the fight for voting rights and the movement to restrict them once again,” Ari Berman, The Nation, Oct. 22, 2013.
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Racism & Felony Disenfranchisement: An Intertwined History, Brennan Center for Justice, May 2017.
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Expanding the Vote: Two Decades of Felony Disenfranchisement Reforms, The Sentencing Project, October 17, 2018.
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“Voter expansion or voter suppression: What’s happening and does it matter?”, Ellen Kamarck, Brookings Institute, October 21, 2021.
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The Impact of Voter Suppression on Communities of Color, Brennan Center for Justice, January 10, 2022.
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Treating the Voting Booth Like a Crime Scene: The Hypercriminalization of Elections, Voting Rights Lab, April 25, 2022.
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Locked Out 2022: Estimates of People Denied Voting Rights, The Sentencing Project, October 2022.
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Expanding Voting Rights to All Citizens in the Era of Mass Incarceration, The Sentencing Project, March 2, 2021.
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States are stepping up prosecutions for voter fraud. But who gets the harshest punishment?, The 19th, October 6, 2022.
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They Were Trying to Help Run Elections. Then They Got Criminally Investigated. ProPublica, November 3, 2022.
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Voting rights in 2023: what are the key issues for US democracy? The Guardian, January 6, 2023.
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In Florida, the Gutting of a Landmark Law Leaves Few Felons Likely to Vote, ElectionLand from ProPublica, October 7, 2020.
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Florida Changes Law to Boost Unjust ‘Voter Fraud’ Prosecutions, Brennan Center for Justice, February 23, 2023.
