Untitled Slide
Each individual U.S. state determines whether or when citizens with a felony conviction may exercise their right to vote, resulting in a diverse array of policies throughout the United States. Two states, Maine and Vermont, do not disenfranchise felons at all, allowing them to continue to vote, even while incarcerated. Florida, Iowa and Kentucky among 11 states at the opposite extreme, revokes the right to vote permanently once a citizen is convicted of a felony. Most states fall somewhere in between either restoring the vote upon release or after the individual is no longer on paper.
States with the most draconian policies – including Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi and Virginia – more than 7% of the adult population is barred from the polls sometimes for life.
Minnesota is one of 24 states where citizens with a felony conviction are prohibited from voting as long as they are under correctional control or “on paper,” while on probation or parole. 18 states have less restrictive laws [check this!]
Many policies defy logic: In four states, including New York, felons on parole can’t vote but felons on probation can. In some states, felons must formally apply for restoration of their voting rights which state official can grant or deny on the most arbitrary of grounds.
Florida is a special case indeed. Of the estimated 5.8 million Americans nationwide who are affected by these laws, approx 1/4 or 1.5 millionlive in FL where only 6% of the population resides. The state’s ban applies to an almost ludicrous range of offenses, from 1st degree murder to disobeying a police officer to messing with someone’s crab trap. 2010 figures indicate 70 percent are serving sentences for nonviolent offenses and 61 had no prior convictions; 1/5 are drug offenders. AA comprise half of all FL prisoners but only 15% of the state’s overall population.
Map from the sentencing project.