USLW: Mississippi convicted felons won class status Feb. 13 in their suit to have their voting rights restored.The state’s argument that class certification lacks utility has “practical appeal, but it finds no foothold in Rule 23’s text,” Judge Daniel P. … Continue reading
Category Archives: felon voting
Daniel Nichanian for The Appeal. … Continue reading
Tampa Bay Times: That’s when voters approved Amendment 4, a ballot measure that restored the right to vote to most people who had served out sentences for felony convictions. What would 1.2 million potential new voters mean to perhaps the … Continue reading
Star-Tribune: Minnesota is one of 22 states where felons cannot vote until they complete post-incarceration supervision, such as probation or parole. Brown-Goodell’s is the latest in a growing chorus of voices leading a renewed charge to change that, a move … Continue reading
Des Moines Register: Gov. Kim Reynolds will propose a constitutional amendment restoring voting rights to convicted felons in a Condition of the State address that highlights “the beauty of grace” and second chances. … Continue reading
WSJ: Some Florida officials are balking at the state’s new amendment restoring voting rights to about 1.4 million people with felony records that is set to take effect Tuesday. Amendment 4, which Florida voters passed in November with nearly 65% support, re-enfranchises … Continue reading
Stephen Wolf: The ACLU’s response to the news strongly suggests the organization will sue to force DeSantis and Florida officials to stop stalling and automatically restore voting rights. However, they may not get a welcome reception if their case ultimately makes it … Continue reading
Florida's Republican SoS is resisting implementation of the restoration of felons voting rights, overwhelmingly approved by voters. And, yeah, this is going to lead to costly litigation for the state, with voters footing the bill https://t.co/1lqPpKQMeX pic.twitter.com/bBi9YvdFfw — Michael McDonald … Continue reading
Steve Mazie for The Economist. … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy for the Brennan Center. … Continue reading
Miami Herald: About 1.2 million convicted felons in Florida will automatically have their right to vote restored, thanks to a ballot measure that received about65 percent of the vote Tuesday. At least 60 percent of voters had to approve for … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy for HuffPost. … Continue reading
Marc Meredith and Michael Morse for Vox. … Continue reading
HuffPo: In California, people with a felony conviction can vote as long as they aren’t currently incarcerated in state or federal prison, on parole, or in county jail for a parole violation. Otherwise-eligible jail inmates are permitted to vote by mail. … Continue reading
Palm Beach Post. … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy at the HLR Blog. … Continue reading
No Jargon Podcast: Casting a ballot seems as American as apple pie. But in Florida, one in ten people have had their voting rights taken away because of a criminal conviction. Professor Ciara Torres-Spelliscy dives into the history of Florida’s … Continue reading
Emily Bazelon for NYT Magazine. … Continue reading
Tampa Bay Times: A national group with close ties to the Koch Brothers, Freedom Partners, has thrown its support behind Amendment 4 on the Florida ballot — the proposal to restore voting rights to most convicted felons without hearings or … Continue reading
HuffPost: Andrew Gillum, the Democratic mayor of Tallahassee, needs the support of black voters to become Florida’s first black governor. But he faces a major obstacle: A provision of the Florida Constitution with Jim Crow–era roots prevents more than 1.5 … Continue reading
Big Update: CLC launched https://t.co/INezPYJhd6 to help up to 17 million Americans with past convictions understand their rights & register to vote RIGHT NOW. These laws are confusing but most people with past convictions CAN vote. Help us spread the … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy for Shondaland. … Continue reading
Campaign Legal Center and Southern Poverty Law Center announcement on their efforts to re-enfranchise Alabama voters with felony convictions: The Alabama Voting Rights Project will take a simple message across the state: A felony conviction does not permanently take away … Continue reading
HuffPo: The NAACP and a handful of voters filed a lawsuit on Thursday to strike down the map for the Connecticut legislature before the 2020 election. The plaintiffs say that lawmakers are unconstitutionally drawing district lines when they count prisoners as … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs. … Continue reading
Sam Levine for HuffPo: There are more than 10,000 people waiting to have their voting rights restored in Florida, but the clemency board meets only four times a year to restore voting rights (some cases are resolved without a hearing). … Continue reading
CBS News: A Texas woman plans to challenge a judge’s decision to deny her a new trial after sentencing her to five years in prison for voter fraud. Crystal Mason was convicted in March of voting illegally in the 2016 presidential … Continue reading
The Journal-Gazette reports. … Continue reading
This may be the first class action suit by detainees seeking money damages for loss of the right to vote certified for class status. Here’s an earlier story in Indiana Lawyer: Lawyers for inmates of the Allen County Jail and for … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
Orlando Sentinel: Florida’s system of restoring voting rights to ex-felons remains intact, for now at least, after a federal appeals court Wednesday night delayed a judge’s ruling issued in February that had struck down the system. The decision from the … Continue reading
NYT: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Wednesday that he intends to restore voting rights to felons on parole, a move that could open the ballot box to more than 35,000 people. The mechanism through which Mr. Cuomo plans to … Continue reading
Kira Lerner for Think Progress. … Continue reading
Will at WaPo: What compelling government interest is served by felon disenfranchisement? Enhanced public safety? How? Is it to fine-tune the quality of the electorate? This is not a legitimate government objective for elected officials to pursue. A felony conviction … Continue reading
Tampa Bay Times: Gov. Rick Scott is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that he must come up with a new way to restore voting rights to felons. “People elected by Floridians should determine Florida’s clemency rules for convicted criminals, not … Continue reading
FELN: U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker issued a permanent injunction today that requires Florida’s Executive Clemency Board to establish a new voting rights restoration process for former felons by April 26. While the Court did not order the automatic … Continue reading
David Cottrell, Michael C. Herron, Javier M. Rodriguez, and Daniel A. Smith have written this article for American Politics Research. Here is the abstract: On account of poor living conditions, African Americans in the United States experience disproportionately high rates of … Continue reading
Miles Rapoport for TAP. … Continue reading
Release via email: United States District Court Judge Mark E. Walker ruled Florida’s voting rights restoration scheme violates the First Amendment rights of free association and free expression, and the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The decision, issued … Continue reading
Washington Post editorial: NO STATE comes close to disenfranchising its citizens at the rate Florida does. By doing so, the state extends the iniquities of Jim Crow into the modern era to the detriment of minority and, for the most … Continue reading
I have posted this draft on SSRN, which is forthcoming in a special symposium issue of the University of Memphis Law Review commemorating the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. (More about that symposium here.) Here is … Continue reading
Think Progress: Florida voters will have a chance to restore voting rights to more than 1 million former felons through a ballot initiative this November. The proposed constitutional amendment on Tuesday reached the 766,200 petition signatures required to go on the ballot. … Continue reading
WTOP: A Virginia commonwealth’s attorney has warned prosecutors statewide Wednesday against prosecuting certain voter registration fraud cases, due to concerns raised by Virginia registrars. In an email obtained by WTOP through a Freedom of Information Act request, Chuck Slemp, commonwealth’s … Continue reading
Release: Ysterday, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), The Sentencing Project, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), filed an amicus brief in a Louisiana appellate court in support of plaintiffs-appellants, who are challenging Louisiana’s felony disenfranchisement policy. More … Continue reading
Hadar Aviram, Allyson Bragg, and Chelsea Lewis have posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming Annual Review of Law and Social Science). Here is the abstract: Crime control and prisons have featured prominently in electoral campaigns, yet currently and formerly incarcerated people … Continue reading
AL.com: A number of election officials across Alabama remain confused about the impacts of a sweeping new felon disenfranchisement law, according to interviews this week with registrars representing 12 counties. The new law, which took effect in August, clarified which … Continue reading
BAN reports on this ruling. … Continue reading
Nancy Leong for Take Care. … Continue reading
CLC press release from last week: Campaign Legal Center today asked a federal court to immediately order the state of Alabama to implement the Felony Voter Disqualification Act (HB 282) (signed May 25, 2017) by educating and advising voters of the law, … Continue reading
Orlando Sentinel intro. Charlie Crist in favor of state constitutional amendment. Michael Morley opposed. … Continue reading