Jail-Based Voting Resources

More than 650,000 people are detained in local jails across the United States. Because most of these people are detained pre-trial, they retain their eligibility to vote. Strengthening jail-based voting programs, both the implementation and advocacy work, is local. As such, advocates are often looking for ideas and examples and templates from other communities.

This page offers resources for advocates and eligible incarcerated voters as well as elections and jail administrators. It is compiled by Campaign Legal Center and The Sentencing Project.  For more information or inquiries into templates letters please contact Kate Uyeda (kuyeda@campaignlegalcenter.org) at Campaign Legal Center or Bob Libal at The Sentencing Project (blibal@sentencingproject.org).

Resources for jail administrators and elections offices

• Democracy Detained: Fulfilling the Promise of the Right to Vote from Jail Toolkit for Elections and Jail Administrators (LDF Thurgood Marshall Fund and Prison Legal Advocacy Network, 2024)

National jail-based advocacy voting resources

• Challenging Jail-Based Disenfranchisement: Resource Guide for Advocates (Campaign Legal Center)
• Democracy Detained: Fulfilling the Promise of the Right to Vote from Jail Toolkit for Advocates (LDF Thurgood Marshall Fund and Prison Legal Advocacy Network, 2024)
• Laws That Govern Jail-Based Voting: A 50-State Legal Review (Harvard’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation,, 2024)
• Recommendations for Implementing Jail-based Voting (Harvard’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, 2024)
• Voting in Jails: Advocacy Strategies to #UnlockTheVote (The Sentencing Project, 2022)

State-based resources

Arizona

• How to vote from jail in Arizona

Colorado

• Confined Voter Blueprint (Office of the Clerk and Recorder, City and County of Denver, 2021)
• Know the Law Palm Card (Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition)
• Denver Confined Voter Survey (Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, 2023)
• Jail-Based Voting in Denver: A Case Study (Harvard’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, 2024)

Florida

• Ensuring That Eligible Voters in Florida Jails Have Access to the Ballot (All Voting is Local, ACLU-FL, 2021)
• Jail Based Voting Toolkit: Voter Policies Are Inconsistent and Insufficient in Florida Jails (All Voting Is Local, ACLU-FL, 2021)

Ohio

• Advocacy Letter to an Election Official in OH (multiple groups) (2020)

Tennessee

• Sustained, Strategic Organizing Paves the Way for Jail Voting Work in Tennessee (2024)

Texas

• Guidance for Sheriffs_TX (Houston Justice, Campaign Legal Center, 2020)

Wisconsin

• Report – Ballots for All: Ensuring Eligible Wisconsin Voters in Jail Have Equal Access to Voting (All Voting is Local, ACLU-WI, 2020)

Washington, DC

• Jail-Based Voting in the District of Columbia: A Case Study (Harvard’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, 2024)

Litigation

VOTE v. State

• In December 2025, Louisiana-based organization VOTE and an incarcerated voter sued Louisiana, challenging a set of laws that make it impossible for jailed voters who are voting for the first time to cast their ballot. The lawsuit was brought by Campaign Legal Center in partnership with local counsel Bill Quigley and the Law Offices of William Most.

VOTE v. Landry

• Voice of the Experienced, Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, the League of Women Voters of Louisiana and their members have sued the Louisiana Secretary of State to advocate on behalf of voters with past convictions who are seeking to register to vote after their rights were restored. The state currently requires those who were registered before their conviction to provide additional documentation of their eligibility in person at the registrar’s office in order to get back onto the voter rolls. While it is burdensome for any voter to comply with this, it is impossible for those in the jail, who cannot go in person to the registrar’s office. This lawsuit was brought by Campaign Legal Center in partnership with local counsel Bill Quigley.

ACLU of Nevada v. Elko County

• In 2023, the Nevada state legislature passed a bill mandating that jail administrators work with local officials to implement policies and practices to protect ballot access for those in jail. When public records revealed that Elko County jail was not in compliance, ACLUNV filed a mandamus action to bring it into compliance. On May 29, 2024, ACLUNV and Elko County reached a settlement and the jail is now in compliance with the law.

Hobbs v. Galvin

• In 2022, Massachusetts enacted the VOTES Act, which included groundbreaking provisions to protect voting access for eligible voters in jails. One provision required the Secretary of the Commonwealth to publish data on jail voters, yet the Secretary did not meet his deadline for doing so. Jail voting advocates, including two formerly incarcerated individuals, brought a mandamus style action in February 2026 and was settled just a month later. The case was brought by Campaign Legal Center and Lawyers for Civil Rights, with pro bono support from Anderson & Kreiger and the Law Office of John Reinstein.

Prisoners Legal Advocacy Network v. Carney

• This case challenged provisions in Delaware law to ensure incarcerated individuals could cast a ballot. On August 23, 2024, a federal court declined to grant a preliminary injunction. This case was brought by ACLU of Delaware, American Civil Liberties Union, Shaw Keller LLP, and Proskauer Rose LLP. Even though Plaintiffs did not get the result they hoped for, the public pressure that resulted from the lawsuit led to the Delaware Department of Elections conducting “in-facility” absentee voting, which led to an increase in voting from 4 ballots cast in 2022 to 311 ballots cast in 2024.

Mays v. LaRose

• Ohio voters in jail challenged state statutes that prohibited them from voting if they were arrested after the absentee ballot request deadline but before election day. This meant that these “late jailed voters” were unable to cast a ballot. Although Plaintiffs won at the District Court level, the Sixth Circuit reversed and held for the Defendant. The case was brought by Campaign Legal Center.

O’Brien v. Skinner, 414 U.S. 524 (1974)

• This case, brought by jailed voters in New York, established that voters could not be denied ballot access if they were otherwise eligible to vote.