Nearly 60 years after Voting Rights Act, some voter protections still undermined

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This month marks the 57th anniversary of Alabama’s "Bloody Sunday" – a crucial moment that started on Selma's famous Edmund Pettus Bridge and ushered in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. On that day, people around the world witnessed state-sanctioned violence against African Americans fighting for their civil rights – in this case, the right to vote.

And now, a year after President Joe Biden issued an executive order expanding voting rights access in honor of Selma’s legacy, we are still fighting the vestiges of a system built on subjugation and racism. Thousands of people in federal custody or who have been released, whom Biden’s order seeks to protect, are facing roadblocks and red tape, preventing them from attaining full access to this most sacred right. 

And a disproportionate number of those disenfranchised voters are people of color. 

I was banned from voting

I used to be one of them. I was incarcerated in 2002 on drug conspiracy charges after I signed for a boyfriend's packages that I didn't know contained marijuana. When I was released from federal prison in 2006, I was among the many formerly incarcerated individuals who were on probation in Tennessee who couldn't vote. 

My case was relatively easy. I petitioned for early release from probation, eventually received a letter that stated my citizenship had been restored and sent that to the elections commission. After nearly three years of probation, my voting rights were reinstated.

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I had no overwhelming court fees and no outstanding child support to pay. Even so, I struggled. I paid my debt to society with nearly four years of my life. I studied for the LSAT while I was in prison and went to law school when I was released. Eventually I became a public defender, but before that I watched as the rest of the country voted for our first Black president, while I, as a Black woman, was stuck in the shadows. I was banned from the electoral process because of my felony conviction. I was paying even more for a crime for which I had already paid.

While my transition was somewhat smooth, that's not the case for most people. I have seen folks caught by mountains of legal debt and others who must wait even longer than I did under supervision – unable to obtain early release. The systematic exclusion of millions of Americans from our elections not only weakens our communities, it also undermines the very legitimacy of our democracy.

Racist roots of disenfranchisement

Felony disenfranchisement and this country’s racist roots are undeniably intertwined. 

Alabama lawmakers, for example, all but wrote the word "disenfranchisement" in their constitution. In 1901, delegates decided to limit voting rights for felons whose convictions included "moral turpitude" – a very subjective phrase. Vague language like that has often been used in states across the country to keep Black voters from casting their ballots. Alabama's "moral turpitude" language was at one point ruled discriminatory. 

In 2020, the Sentencing Project (where I work to advocate for voting rights) found that 1 out of every 16 African American adults are kept from voting because of a felony conviction – nearly four times the rate of other populations.

Today, only Maine, Vermont, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., uphold voting rights for all its residents whether or not they are incarcerated or have any history with the criminal legal system.

Biden’s executive order instructs the Department of Justice to ensure voting access for people in federal custody who are eligible to vote, including citizens detained pretrial who have not been convicted of a felony offense and residents of jurisdictions that do not ban voting by imprisoned people. The order also instructs the Justice Department to assist individuals leaving federal prison who are eligible to vote with the voter registration process, and provide information about when and how their voting rights can be restored, according to their respective state laws. 

While the executive order is a step in the right direction, more must be done to reduce the significant hurdles faced by individuals when they attempt to register or cast their ballot.

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This is especially true for people in custody. The League of Women Voters, the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia and the Sentencing Project, along with other groups, submitted written testimony to the city council about the difficulties that Washington residents have had trying to vote while in federal custody.

Without clear guidance on voter registration, voter education and the assurance that those individuals who register to vote receive an absentee ballot and that those ballots are delivered in a timely manner to boards of election, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is undermining voter participation, which is the very thing the executive order sought to end. 

Adequate voting information

I reviewed the Admission and Orientation Handbooks for several Bureau of Prisons facilities and only found that Alderson Federal Prison Camp (where I was incarcerated), located in West Virginia, had information regarding voting in prison. However, as written, the information is wholly insufficient in explaining the process of voting in prison and fails to meet the requirements set out in Section 9 of the executive order “to provide educational materials related to voter registration and voting.” 

Adequate voting information should be added to all prison handbooks, particularly those with a high concentration of individuals from Maine, Vermont, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. There is little information on the BOP website about voting rights for inmates. 

As the Department of Justice navigates hiring its next Bureau of Prisons director, DOJ should seek an individual who prioritizes the health and safety of individuals in their custody, who is committed to racial justice, and who understands that ensuring access to voting rights for people in federal custody is critical to the bureau's mandate.

Bloody Sunday showed our nation that voting is a sacred right. Unlocking the vote for those in prison and jails will uphold our democracy’s legacy.  

Keeda Haynes is the voting rights campaign strategist with The Sentencing Project. She is a formerly incarcerated former public defender who works with various state and federal partners on voting rights for directly impacted and currently incarcerated individuals. Haynes is also the author of "Bending the Arc: My Journey From Prison to Politics." Follow her on Twitter: @keedahaynes