Take action to support felon voting rights

A patchwork of state laws prohibit 5.3 million Americans with criminal records from voting, according to a report by the Sentencing Project.  Minority groups are disproportionately affected - an estimated 13% of African-American men don't have the right to vote. But there is hope on the horizon, and you can take action today to support  a bill that would extend voting rights in federal elections to all Americans on parole and probation and those who have completed their sentences.

Send a letter to your elected representatives right now in support of the Democracy Restoration Act, introduced in the Senate by Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) and the House by John Conyers (D-Mich.)

This is the first post in a weekly series; every Monday on the criminal justice blog we'll feature a map examining statistics or policy around the world. More on the disenfranchisement of felons and parolees after the jump.

The groundbreaking Democracy Restoration Act pending in Congress would override a patchwork of state laws that currently govern access to both federal and state elections. Today, felons can be permanently disenfranchised in ten states, while 35 states deny the vote to those with probation and parole. On the other end of the spectrum, Maine and Vermont allow prisoners to vote. View the full map here to find the policy in your state.

As you might guess, the denial of voting rights has been linked to recidivism. A 2004 Columbia Law Review article found that 15% of non-voters were rearrested in the three years after an election, compared with 5% of voters. Eight in 10 Americans support extending voting rights to people who have completed their sentences, and two-thirds say they support allowing parolees and probationers to vote. More stats from the Sentencing Project are here.

A new documentary film, Democracy's Ghosts, explores this topic. As one man says in the trailer: "When the system disregards you, you have the tendency to disregard it."

With our nation in financial turmoil, and with our national attention more tuned to the electoral process than it has been in decades, now is the time to create a more inclusive democracy, extending opportunity to the disaffected rather than finding reasons to exclude them. Send your letter to Congress today.

More tomorrow on the impact of recent felon voting rights reforms on the current election.