BALTIMORE, MD – More than 4.6 million Americans are expected to be disenfranchised, and not be able to vote in the upcoming 2024 election because of their felony convictions, according to a new report by The Sentencing Project “Locked Out 2024: Estimates of People Denied Voting Rights Due to a Felony Conviction.”
The report exposes significant racial disparities and the ongoing effects of felony disenfranchisement, which disproportionately affects African American and Latino voters across the country.
The report, written by Christopher Uggen and co-released by The Sentencing Project, focuses on the high percentage of individuals who are no longer incarcerated, but still impacted by felony voting bans.
According to the findings, 70 percent of those disenfranchised are living in their communities either on parole, probation, or having completed their sentences, but remain barred from voting in many states.
The authors argue this restriction perpetuates systemic inequalities in the electoral process.
Kara Gotsch, the executive director of The Sentencing Project, criticized felony disenfranchisement as a lingering form of voter suppression, charging, “These laws continue to disproportionately harm people of color particularly African Americans, whose communities are already underrepresented in the democratic process.”
The report argues African Americans are disenfranchised at a rate three times higher than non-African Americans, with one in 23 Black adults unable to vote because of a felony conviction. This ratio is particularly alarming in states like Florida, where more than 10 percent of African American citizens are ineligible to vote, further exacerbating social inequalities.
According to the report, the disenfranchised population also includes about 496,000 Latino Americans and 763,000 women. Latino Americans are disenfranchised at higher rates than the general population in 28 states, with over five percent of the Latino population in states like Arizona unable to vote.
On the other hand, the report notes that women make up just under 20 percent of the disenfranchised population – although 56 percent of women have completed their sentences.
Florida and Tennessee are highlighted by the report as the two states that lead the nation in disenfranchisement rates, with more than six percent of their adult populations unable to vote.
The report acknowledges efforts made to expand voting rights in about half of U.S states, but also points out how states in the Southeast have resisted such reform efforts, leading to increasing rates of disenfranchisement in those states, even as national rates fell.
The report calls attention to the “urgent need for national solutions to address the persistent barriers to voting faced by justice-impacted communities.”
Nicole D. Porter, senior director of advocacy at The Sentencing Project, criticized how the legacy of racial inequity has affected people of color’s ability to vote.
“(O)ur nation remains ensnared by the remnants of Jim Crow through the practice of felony disenfranchisement. Black and Brown communities bear the brunt of felony voting bans, further perpetuating the persistent racial inequities that plague our country,” said Porter.
Porter argues the continued exclusion of millions of voters, especially prior to such a critical election as 2024, goes against the very ideals of U.S. democracy, and “Ensuring that every voting age citizen has a voice in shaping our future is essential to building a more inclusive and equitable society.”
Christopher Uggen, one of the report’s authors, said the report “highlights the urgent need for reforms that go beyond piecemeal state-level changes” and the barring of millions of voters, most of whom come from marginalized communities, represents a “profound failure of our democratic system.”
Uggen adds, “We need to make voting rights for people with felony convictions a national priority if we are serious about creating a truly inclusive democracy.”
The full report is co-authored by Uggen, Ryan Larson, Sarah Shannon, Robert Stewart, and Molly Hauf, and expands upon research done by The Sentencing Project which analyzes the scope of felony disenfranchisement and the state-level laws that bar voters with felony convictions.
