Disenfranchisement: News/Updates from The Sentencing Project

Washington State: Legislation Aimed at Reintegration Includes Speedy Vote Restoration The Washington Senate approved a bill which is expected to speed up the process of restoring voting rights to people with felony convictions, according to the Seattle Post Intelligencer. The State Senate approved prison reforms last week in an effort to better prepare incarcerated individuals to reintegrate into society. Alabama: Re-enfranchisement is Still a Dream Deferred In response to the Bloody Sunday March he participated in earlier this month, Rev. Kenneth Glasgow of the Alabama Alliance to Vote stated in a Montgomery Advertiser op-ed that he has yet to see Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s dream realized when it comes to disenfranchisement. Despite the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, “millions of Americans are still excluded from the polls because of restrictive felony voting laws that reflect the dramatic growth of the prison system in recent decades. At the time the Voting Rights Act was implemented, 1.5 million Americans could not vote because of a felony record. Today, more than 5.3 million people are disenfranchised nationally. This rise in the number of disenfranchised adults is an unfortunate reminder that the fight for voting rights goes on,” Glasgow wrote. Colorado: Lawmakers Say Parolees Can Vote While sifting through its annual election-code clean up, the Colorado Senate approved a bill that would allow paroled individuals the right to vote, according to the Denver Post. “When you look at moving people from prison to society, the more we can get them to be responsible, the less likely they are to go back in,” said Senate Majority Leader Peter Groff. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled last year that parolees did not have the right to vote. Contact Information Email: [email protected] web: http://www.sentencingproject.org