Restoring voting rights to folks with felony convictions can also be supported by a majority of the general public.
Lansing, Michigan – Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed into legislation laws – Home Invoice 4983 – that will mechanically register folks to vote upon exiting jail. The invoice will cut back confusion about who can and can’t vote given variations in state legal guidelines.
“The Sentencing Venture applauds Governor Whitmer and the Michigan Legislature for passing the primary legislation within the nation that may require a state to register folks to vote after they’re launched from jail,” stated Nicole D. Porter, Senior Director of Advocacy for The Sentencing Venture. “Analysis demonstrates that taking away peoples’ proper to vote as a result of their involvement with the prison authorized system impedes previously incarcerated folks’s means to reintegrate into their communities. Increasing voting rights will be linked to a lowered probability that a person will commit one other crime. Whereas there may be extra work to be finished, this invoice is a big step in the precise route.”
This laws builds on momentum to ensure voting rights for individuals with felony convictions throughout the nation. Since 1997, 26 states and the District of Columbia have expanded voting rights to folks residing with felony convictions, permitting greater than 2 million People to regain their proper to vote.
Restoring voting rights to folks with felony convictions can also be supported by a majority of the general public. Polling from Lake Analysis Companions discovered {that a} majority of voters (56%) would assist a legislation guaranteeing the eligibility to vote for all residents 18 and older, together with residents finishing their sentence, each inside and outdoors of jail.
“Automated voter registration is vital to empowering people who’ve had their basic rights unjustly stripped away by the federal government,” stated Percy Glover, of Michigan’s F.A.I.R. Voting Alliance. “Voting is a constitutional proper and isn’t misplaced for Michiganders who haven’t been sentenced and reside in a jail and is instantly re-established for individuals launched from jail. The liberty to vote should be assured for a good and true democracy.”
Most of the legal guidelines linking voting rights to an people’ historical past with the prison justice system have their roots in reconstruction-era insurance policies which have been explicitly designed to disclaim the precise to vote to Black and Brown folks, together with ballot taxes, literacy exams, grandfather clauses, and cross burnings. On account of these outdated insurance policies, over 4.6 million People with a felony conviction have been disenfranchised as of 2022, disproportionately impacting Black and Latinx People.
About The Sentencing Venture
The Sentencing Venture advocates for efficient and humane responses to crime that decrease imprisonment and criminalization of youth and adults by selling racial, ethnic, financial, and gender justice. www.sentencingproject.org
About Michigan’s F.A.I.R. Voting Alliance
Based in 2022, Michigan’s F.A.I.R. Voting Alliance was established in an effort to advocate for and in partnership with Black and communities of shade which might be usually marginalized from the civic course of. www.fairvotingalliance.org
