Millions of Former Felons Still Can't Vote in the U.S.

An estimated 4.6 million U.S. citizens are not allowed to cast their ballots in the midterm elections this year because of past felonies that they are currently serving or have previously served time for. This is according to the report “Locked Out 2022: Estimates of People Denied Voting Rights” from the Sentencing Project. The number is the equivalent of two percent of the voting-age population in the country.

In the U.S., each state can determine its own policies on whether felons are eligible to vote. Over the past decades, a growing number of states have moved towards reinstating felons’ right to vote, although there are still huge variations.

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) categorizes states into four groups, explaining that in group one - in the District of Columbia, Maine and Vermont - felons never lose their right to vote, even when they are incarcerated. By contrast, in 21 states, while felons lose their voting rights while incarcerated, they are “automatically restored” upon release. Automatic restoration may still require the voter to re-register.

In the third group, made up of 16 states, felons are disenfranchised while incarcerated and for the time they are on parole or probation, and they may also have to pay any outstanding fines before they can vote again.

In the final group, made up of 11 states, the rules are more restrictive. Felons may lose the right to vote permanently, or they may require a governor’s pardon, to pass a further probation period or complete some kind of additional action.

These laws are hitting some communities harder than others, with one in 19 African Americans of voting age banned from voting - 3.5 times higher than among non-African Americans. Florida has the highest number of disenfranchised people, with more than 1.1 million banned from voting, which the report explains, is often due to the fact many cannot afford to pay court-ordered monetary sanctions.

As our chart shows, while there’s still a significant way to go, the number of disenfranchised persons has been falling in recent years. The advocacy group explains this is partly due to state prison populations’ slight declines as well as a rising number of states starting to update their policies.