De-Facto Disenfranchisement: Ensuring the Freedom to Vote in Jail

Though many individuals incarcerated in local jails retain the right to vote, they often cannot exercise it in practice. This de-facto disenfranchisement is caused by a wide range of barriers including difficulty registering to vote, challenges with casting a ballot, and misinformation pertaining to eligibility. In this webinar, we delve into the causes of jail-based disenfranchisement and highlight strategies that advocates and elected officials can employ to ensure that eligible voters who are being detained are not denied their right to vote.

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This discussion was be moderated by Blair Bowie, Legal Counsel and Restore Your Vote Manager at the Campaign Legal Center, and featured Naila Awan, Director of Advocacy for the Prison Policy Initiative; Tatyana Hopkins, student at the UDC Law Youth Justice Clinic; and BeKura W. Shabazz, President of the Criminal Injustice Reform Network.

Webinar Resources

Free to Vote: Virginia Defender Resource Packet, Youth Justice Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law and the Criminal Injustice Reform Network, October 2021.
Georgia Open Records Request Template, Youth Justice Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, October 2021.
Ballots for All: Holding Pennsylvania County Jails Accountable for Providing Ballot Access, All Voting is Local, September 2021.
Amending Our Anti-democratic Ways: The Criminal Justice System Must Stop Disenfranchising Children, Mae C. Quinn and Greg Leding, August 4, 2021.
Maryland HB 222 (Effective June 1, 2021)
Voting Behind Bars: Why Incarceration Should Not Limit the Right to Vote, Sanjana Manjeshwar, Berkely Political Review, May 21, 2021.
Enfranchisement for All: The Case for Ending Penal Disenfranchisement in Our Democracy, Naila Awan and Laura Williamson, Demos, March 2021.
Eligible, but excluded: A guide to removing the barriers to jail voting, Prison Policy Initiative and Rainbow PUSH Coalition, October 2020.
Systemic Inequality | Ballot Access Behind Bars, Robin Fisher, Fordham Law Review Online, 2020.
Many people in jail are eligible to vote. But casting a ballot behind bars isn't easy, Ryan W. Miller, USA Today, October 30, 2020.
Challenging Jail-Based Disenfranchisement: A Resource Guide for Advocates, Campaign Legal Center.
Case: Mays v. LaRose, litigated by Campaign Legal Center and Demos.
Unlock the Vote Arizona: Procedures for Jail-Based Voting by County, Arizona Coalition to End Jail-Based Disenfranchisement, July 2020.
Ballots for All: Ensuring Eligible Wisconsin Voters in Jail Have Equal Access to Voting, All Voting is Local and ACLU of Wisconsin, July 2020.
How to End De Facto Disenfranchisement in the Criminal Justice System, Naila Awan and Shruti Banerjee, Demos, May 2020.
Voting in Jails, The Sentencing Project, May 2020.
Jail as Polling Places: Living Up to the Obligation to Enfranchise the Voters We Jail, Dana Paikowsky, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, 2019.
Know Your Rights: Voting in Jail, ACLU Virginia, October 2019.
Overcoming Barriers that Prevent Eligible Incarcerated People from Voting in Massachusetts, Ballots over Bars (now MASS POWER), October 2019.
Protecting the Voting Rights ot Americans Detained While Awaiting Trial, Danielle Root and Lee Doyle, Center for American Progress, August 2018.
Voting Behind Bars: An Argument for Voting by Prisoners, The Sentencing Project, June 2011.

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