State Voting Rights Briefs
In 2024, four million Americans were banned from voting due to a felony conviction. The Sentencing Project is committed to expanding voting rights in every state and works with state partners to provide specific data on state felony disenfranchisement.
Click the links below to read our state voting rights briefs. If you are interested in working with The Sentencing Project to expand voting rights in your state, please contact Nicole D. Porter (nporter@sentencingproject.org).
Connecticut
Connecticut Bars Over 6,000 Citizens from Voting
Almost half of Connecticans disenfranchised due to felony convictions are Black, and 28% are Latino. To ameliorate this racial injustice and protect its democratic values, Connecticut should restore voting rights to people in prison.
Georgia
Georgia Should Restore Voting Rights to Over 249,000 Citizens
Georgia’s rate of voter exclusion exceeds the national average – 3.25% of the state’s voting age population versus 1.7% nationally
Kentucky
Kentucky Bars Over 152,000 Citizens from Voting
Despite a gubernatorial executive order in 2019 designed to ease the burden of Kentucky’s lifetime disenfranchisement law for people with felony convictions, the commonwealth still denies the right to vote to more people with a felony conviction than 39 other states.
Maryland
Why We Must Restore Voting Rights to Over 16,000 Marylanders
Maryland should strengthen its democracy and advance racial justice by re-enfranchising its entire voting eligible population.
Minnesota
Minnesota Should Restore Voting Rights to Over 55,000 Citizens
Minnesota denies the vote to more of its people with a felony conviction than most other states in the Upper Midwest.
New Mexico
New Mexico Should Restore Voting Rights to Over 5,300 Citizens
The law restricting voting by people with felony convictions undermines New Mexico’s democracy and extends the racial injustice embedded in the criminal legal system to its electoral system.
New York
New York Should Restore Voting Rights to Over 36,000 Citizens
New York should follow the lead of Maine, Vermont, Puerto Rico, and Washington DC and extend voting rights to all people affected by the criminal legal system, regardless of their current incarceration status.
Oregon
Oregon Should Restore Voting Rights to Over 13,000 Citizens
Often viewed as a politically progressive state, Oregon’s disenfranchisement of incarcerated people disproportionately harms Black citizens.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Should Restore Voting Rights to Over 40,000 Citizens
Pennsylvania restricts access to the ballot box at the second highest rate in the region.
Tennessee
Tennessee Denies Voting Rights to Over 470,000 Citizens
Tennessee has the country’s highest rate of disenfranchisement for both Black and Latino Americans.
