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    June 28, 2023

    Restoring the Right to Vote

    Sen. Cardin Reintroduces Bill for the Formerly Incarcerated

    The ABA-supported bill, S. 1677, would restore the right to vote in federal elections for those who have been convicted of a crime.

    The ABA-supported bill, S. 1677, would restore the right to vote in federal elections for those who have been convicted of a crime.

    Continuing his years-long campaign to end the denial of voting rights for those with criminal convictions who have been released from incarceration, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.)  re-introduced the Democracy Restoration Act (DRA) in May. Originally introduced in 2008 by former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis), Cardin has championed the DRA each year since 2011.

    The ABA-supported bill, S. 1677, would restore the right to vote in federal elections for those who have been convicted of a crime unless they are incarcerated at the time of the election.

    In a May 17, 2023, letter to Cardin, ABA President Deborah Enix-Ross thanked Cardin for his re-introduction of the legislation. “The ABA believes the right to participate in a representative democracy is fundamental to citizenship, and disenfranchisement should never be a consequence of conviction,” she wrote.

    More than 4.6 million people – about one in 50 adults in the U.S. – could not vote in 2022 because of felony convictions. Seventy-six percent of them had completed their prison or jail terms and were living in their communities.

    The state and federal governments’ application of criminal law disproportionately punishes many individuals along racial and ethnic lines, resulting in a stunning correlation: over two million voting-eligible Black and Latinx Americans are blocked from the ballot box by state laws. In her letter to Cardin, Enix-Ross pointed out that the laws “disproportionately punishes many individuals along racial and ethnic lines, resulting in a stunning correlation between the permanent loss of the right to vote and Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color.”

    In 11 states, felons lose their voting rights indefinitely for some crimes or face significant restrictions in seeing them restored, such as securing a governor’s pardon for voting rights, according to an April 2023 report by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

    In 14 states, felons lose their voting rights during incarceration and typically while on parole and probation. They may also be required to pay any outstanding fines, fees or restitution before their rights are restored.  In Florida, despite a 2018 constitutional amendment approved by 65% of voters that auto­mat­ic­ally restored voting rights to ex-offenders with certain felony convictions after they had served their sentences, legislators enacted a bill in 2019 banning those with past convictions from voting until that they paid back all fines, fees, and other costs resulting from their conviction.

    In 23 states, those convicted of felonies lose their voting rights while incarcerated; their voting rights are automatically restored upon release.

    A few states are instituting reforms to the restrictive laws. In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill on March 3, 2023, that will restore the right to vote to those convicted of felonies who have served their sentences – expected to affect 50,000 or more people.

    The ABA opposes and urges repeal of any laws that disenfranchise persons based upon criminal conviction. In addition, wrote Enix-Ross in her letter to Cardin, “we find no rational basis for depriving an individual of the right to vote as a collateral consequence of a criminal conviction, as it plays no legitimate role in protecting the public and impedes an individual’s successful reintegration into society at the completion of his or her sentence.”

    The ABA Standards for Criminal Justice lists the loss of voting rights as a “prohibited collateral sanction” as it deprives individuals of their “legal rights and privileges of citizenship.”

    With split control of Congress, the bill faces challenges in moving forward during the current Congressional session. The ABA will continue to work with its partners on passage. “Our position is simply that the fundamental right to vote, as a core right of citizenship, should not be denied to any person based upon criminal conviction,” Enix-Ross said in her letter.

    Follow us @ABAGrassroots to track developments on this and other important issues as they occur.

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