NAACP - BRIEFING POINTS: Restoring the Vote to Ex-Felons

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BRIEFING POINTS: Restoring the Vote to Ex-Felons

Background

The U.S. Civil Rights Commission has written that bans on the voting rights of ex-felons are "the biggest hindrance to black voting since the poll tax." Up to six million citizens of voting age could be re-enfranchised if the vote were restored to all Americans with prior felony convictions. To put the idea of six million potential voters in context, the Voting Rights Act is justly considered the most effective civil rights legislation ever passed. It is estimated to have yielded voting rights for less than 5 million people of color in its entire forty-one year history .

Bans on the vote for ex-felons are rooted in historical and contemporary racism. These restrictions became popular in state law immediately after African-Americans gained the Constitutional right to vote. The number of states with laws preventing people with felony convictions from voting doubled in the years following the passage of the 15th Amendment which gave blacks access to the ballot . Then, as now, a race and class conscious criminal justice system ensured that blacks were charged and convicted of felony crimes at much higher rates than their white counter-parts.

The practice of denying the votes to ex-felons is still inextricably linked to race. States with the highest percentage of African-Americans frequently have the harshest disenfranchisement laws and those with the lowest black populations find the least need to bar felons from the polls. At the least restrictive end of the spectrum are Maine and Vermont which, respectively, have .04 and .03 percent African-American populations (compared to the national average of 12.1%) and happen to be the only two states that allow convicted felons to vote from prison.

People with felony convictions have very different rights depending on the state they live in. Though Representative John Conyers and other progressive members of Congress have advocated federal re-enfranchisement legislation which the NAACP supports, most voting rights experts agree that state legislatures are the most promising venue for immediate passage of felon re-enfranchisement legislation. Several states including New York, Tennessee and, most recently, Rhode Island have led successful campaigns to re-enfranchise ex-felons. These campaigns have frequently benefited from the advocacy of state and local units of the NAACP.

QUICK STATS

5.3 million Americans have lost their right to vote because of a former felony offense.
1 of every 8 African-American men is disenfranchised by felon voting bands.

TALKING POINTS

The NAACP supports strong state and federal legislation to restore the vote to people with felony convictions.
Millions of American citizens are unjustly disenfranchised by racist and undemocratic felon voting bans. The outcome of the 2000 Presidential election which Bush won by 537 votes in Floriday could have been decided by the hundreds of thousands of ex-felons who were denied the vote.
The U.S. Civil Rights Commission has written that bars on the voting rights of ex-felons are "the biggest hindrance to black voting since the poll tax.
Bans on the vote for ex-felons are rooted in historical and contemporary racism.
Model state legislation should include address the actual restoration of voting rights to people with felony convictions, formal notice of voting rights restoration, a statewide voter registration database and provisions for efficient registration and education for poll workers and ex-felons.

ONLINE RESOURCES

Brennan Center Democracy Program: Includes analysis and Full Components of a Right to Vote bill.

The Sentencing Project: Includes multiple news, analysis and event calendars for advocates of felon re-enfranchisement including the September 2006 report, "The Vanishing Black Electorate".

The Right to Vote Campaign to Felony Disenfranchisment: Includes state level resources and model state legislation for voting rights advocates

TAKE ACTION!

Educate! Hold a panel or a hearing, write an op-ed on the importance in our democracy of state and federal legislation to restore the vote to ex-felons.

Legislate! Nearly every state has legislation on the re-enfranchisement. Get involved with groups that are working to pass this legislation and work to ensure that it meets the criteria listed above. If there is no progressive legislation to restore the vote to ex-felons in your state, work with members of your state legislature to introduce model legislation and form coalitions to support it.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

NAACP Washington Bureau Director, Hilary Shelton [202-463-2950], hshelton@naacpnet.org]

NAACP National Public Policy Manager, Ashindi Maxton [202.463.2940, amaxton@naacpnet.org]

Press Contact: Richard McIntire, NAACP Communications Department: [410.580.5127, rmcintire@naacpnet.org]