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Only two states—Maine and Vermont—permit inmates to vote. The majority of states prohibit felons from voting while they are on parole. Two states permanently deny the right to vote to all ex-offenders who have completed their sentences. Nine other states disenfranchise certain categories of ex-offenders and/or permit application for restoration of rights for specified offenses after a waiting period. (Source: The Sentencing Project)
Should convicted felons be able to vote?
"After the Civil War, White Democrats used certain devices, like literacy tests and poll taxes, to exclude people of color, Republicans of color. But we see these techniques being used now too, redistricting and then also barriers to the ballot."
Spencer Overton
George Washington University
Law Professor
Registration rates1 and voter turnout are statistically higher among white citizens in upper-income brackets. On the flip side, non-white citizens and citizens from low-income backgrounds are statistically less likely to vote in elections.
With certain key demographics being under-represented at the polls, political leaders—and subsequently American policy—are being determined by a narrow margin of the American populace.
This discrepancy can be attributed, in part, to the large number of ineligible voters in non-white voting blocs. There has been a dramatic increase over the past three decades of ineligible voters, from approximately 2% in the early 1970s to 10% today2. As incarceration levels continue to rise in the U.S., a growing number of citizens have temporarily or permanently lost the right to vote. With 1 in 83 black males, aged 25-29, in jails nationwide, this has serious ramifications on the African American community by disenfranchising a significant portion of black youth in America.
On the minds of many Americans:
1 Diversity of candidates—will diversity of candidates result in a more diversified voter turnout?
2 New technology in elections—do computerized voting systems unfairly contribute to the disenfranchisement of voters of color and other groups?
3 Voter turnout—how can the U.S. generate higher voter turnout? Is it the government's responsibility to raise the interest of its citizens in the democratic process?
4 White is the new minority—will the country's rapidly changing racial demographic change the electoral process?
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