Just the Facts
- Estimated number of Americans who lost the right to vote in the 2004 election due to a past felony conviction
- 5.3 million[1]
- Number of states that permit incarcerated people to vote
- 2[2]
- Number of states that deny the right to vote to all people who have completed their felony sentences
- 2[3]
- Number of states that allow people with felony convictions to vote upon their release from prison
- 13[4]
- Percentage of African American men disenfranchised because of previous felony convictions
- 13%[5]
- Number of states that prohibit felons from voting while they are on parole
- 35[6]
- Number of states that prohibit persons who are on probation from voting
- 30[7]
- Number of disenfranchised persons who have completed their sentences
- 2.1 million[8]
- Ranking of Florida in number of disenfranchised people with felony convictions
- 1[9]
- Number of people in Florida disenfranchised as December 2004
- 1,179,684[10]
- Amount Florida spends per year maintaining their cumbersome process in which disenfranchised felons must request a hearing to get their voting rights restored
- $4 million[11]
- Estimated number of veterans who were disenfranchised as of 2002 because of a previous felony conviction
- 585,355[12]
- Estimated number of Washington State residents, not including prisoners, who were unable to vote due to a previous felony conviction, December, 2004[13]
- 149,915
- Number of votes which decided November 2004 Washington State Governor’s Race
- 133[14]
- Percentage of adults in a 2004 Harris poll who favored restoring voting rights to former felons once they had completed their sentence
- 80%[15]
- Percentage of adults in the same poll who favored allowing people still on parole to vote
- 60%[16]
- Number of democratic countries besides the United States that remove the right to vote from citizens who have completed their sentences
- 0 [17]
[1] http://www.democracysghosts.org/
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid
[4] As of December 31, 2004, http://www.sentencingproject.org/StatsbyState.aspx
[5] Sentencing Project report on felony disenfranchisement laws: http://www.sentencingproject.org/Admin%5CDocuments%5Cpublications%5Cfd_bs_fdlawsinus.pdf
[6] Ibid
[7] Ibid
[8] Ibid
[9] http://www.sentencingproject.org/StatsbyState.aspx
[10] Ibid
[11] http://www.democracysghosts.org/bureaucracy/bureaucracy.html
[12] http://www.sentencingproject.org/Admin/Documents/publications/fd_bs_disenfr_vetsinus.pdf
[13] http://www.sentencingproject.org/StatsbyState.aspx
[14] http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/2004gov_race.aspx
[15] http://www.soc.umn.edu/~uggen/Manza_Brooks_Uggen_POQ_04_abstract.pdf
[16] Ibid
[17] http://www.demos-usa.org/pubs/FDToolkit_r4.pdf
This article first appeared in the Fall 2008 Issue of Justice Matters
