Women Silenced at the Polls
How Criminal Convictions Deny the Right to Vote
Our new report examines how the rapid growth of women’s involvement in the criminal legal system has expanded the reach of felony disenfranchisement laws and left over 760,000 women excluded from the democratic process.
The report shows how voting restrictions tied to criminal convictions impact women, particularly women of color, and deepen existing racial, gender, and economic inequalities.
Virginia Takes Step to End Jim Crow Era Voting Ban
Virginia lawmakers voted last to place a measure on the November ballot this year to automatically restore voting rights to people when they exit prison. Virginia’s felony disenfranchisement law was enshrined in the state constitution 124 years ago with the explicit intent to disenfranchise Black voters. If adopted by voters, this landmark ballot measure will eliminate the state’s lifetime felony voting ban, restoring the vote to over 230,000 citizens.
Key Publications
State-Specific Voting Rights Reports
In 2022, 4.4 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.
Anytime a member of a society is not afforded the right to express his or her opinions by way of the democratic process, we cannot achieve the ideals of democracy.
Testimony in Support of Restoring Voting Rights to People in Massachusetts Prisons and Jails
Nicole D. Porter testified in support of H 63 and S 7, legislation that would guarantee voting rights for all persons completing their sentence inside Massachusetts prisons and jails regardless of their crime of conviction.
Locked Out 2024: Four Million Denied Voting Rights Due to a Felony Conviction
This webinar discusses the findings of our report “Locked Out 2024: Estimates of People Denied Voting Rights Due to a Felony Conviction,” which found that 4 million Americans were unable to vote in the 2024 election due to felony disenfranchisement laws.
Voting Rights
Effective democracy requires universal voting access and guaranteed voting rights for all citizens. Laws that ban people with felony convictions from voting, or policies that undermine voting by incarcerated people eligible to vote, harm our democracy and the millions of citizens who are excluded from it. These voting bans have disproportionately diluted the political power of Black and brown communities. Help us end voting restrictions for people with felony convictions by sharing these facts on social media.
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4 million
Americans are banned from voting due to felony convictions.
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48 states
bar people from voting in prison. Only Maine, Vermont, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico allow voting in prison.
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1 in 22
voting-age Black Americans have lost their voting rights due to a felony conviction—over 3 times the rate among non-Black Americans.
Join the movement to expand voting rights for all
Help us apply political and legal pressure to ensure that a person’s criminal legal system involvement does not influence their voting eligibility or lead to other permanent exclusions and limitations from civic life.
