Arguments for and against allowing people convicted of a felony to vote while incarcerated
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| Select a state from the menu below to learn more about its election administration. |
Voting rights for people convicted of a felony vary substantially from state to state. As of April 2025, people convicted of a felony in Maine, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. retained the right to vote while incarcerated. In 38 other states, people convicted of a felony could not vote while incarcerated but automatically regained the right to vote upon their release or at some point thereafter. Ten states did not automatically restore voting rights for people convicted of a felony.[1][2][3]
Whether incarcerated people convicted of a felony should be able to vote is a subject of debate.
| Supporters of allowing people convicted of a felony to vote while incarcerated argue that voting is not a privilege, that incarcerated people convicted of a felony retain their other rights, and that preventing incarcerated people convicted of a felony from voting would disproportionately impact minorities. |
| Opponents of allowing people convicted of a felony to vote while incarcerated argue that voting is a privilege instead of an absolute right of citizenship, that part of losing freedom while incarcerated is losing the right to vote, and that allowing incarcerated people convicted of a felony to vote is unpopular with the public. |
On this page, you will find:
- Arguments at a glance: A brief summary of support and opposition arguments.
- Support arguments in detail: Detailed support arguments from a variety of sources.
- Opposition arguments in detail: Detailed opposition arguments from a variety of sources.
- Further reading: Links to resources with more information on allowing people convicted of a felony to vote while incarcerated.
Arguments at a glance
This section includes quotes briefly summarizing some of the most prevalent arguments for and against allowing people convicted of a felony to vote while incarcerated.
| Support | Opposition |
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| “This is a democracy and we have got to expand that democracy, and I believe every single person does have the right to vote. Yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘Well, that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote. Well, that person did that. Not going to let that person vote,’ you’re running down a slippery slope. So I believe people commit crimes and they paid the price and they have the right to vote. I believe even if they’re in jail they’re paying their price to society but that should not take away their inherent American right to participate in our democracy.” - U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) (2019)[4] |
"All but two states, Maine and Vermont, take away the right of felons to vote when they are convicted and are serving their sentences. Such a policy makes perfect sense and is in the best interests of our society and local communities. As a federal judge said in 2002 in an unsuccessful case challenging Florida’s disenfranchisement law, felons are deprived of their ability to vote because of 'their own decision to commit an act for which they assume the risks of detection and punishment.'" - Hans von Spakovsky, The Heritage Foundation (2019)[5] |
Support arguments in detail
Three arguments in favor of allowing people convicted of a felony to vote while incarcerated are that voting is not a privilege, that incarcerated people convicted of a felony retain their other rights, and that preventing incarcerated people convicted of a felony from voting would disproportionately impact minorities. This section details those arguments from a variety of sources arranged by topic.
Claim: Voting is not a privilege; it's a right
In a 2021 Washington Monthly opinion piece titled "Why Voting Isn’t A 'Privilege,'" University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law professor Joshua Douglas wrote the following:
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The belief that voting is a 'privilege' suggests that it’s somehow better to have fewer voters—which of course just means voters who agree with a certain ideology, with predictable racial and other demographic effects on who can more easily satisfy restrictive voting rules. The solution to the concern about so-called ignorant voters isn’t to shut them out of the process but to improve civics education. Moreover, this myopic view of democratic participation ignores the value of voting to our system of government, the lessons of history, and the proper understanding of our Constitution. |
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| —Joshua Douglas, University of Kentucky (2021)[7] | ||
Claim: Incarcerated people convicted of a felony retain their other rights
Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, wrote the following in a 2019 opinion piece in the Northwest Florida Daily News:
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Felony disenfranchisement also ignores the important distinction between legitimate punishment for a crime and one’s rights as a citizen. Convicted individuals may be sentenced to prison, but they generally maintain their basic rights. So even if someone is held in a maximum security prison cell he or she still has the right to get married or divorced, or to buy or sell property. And to the extent that voting can be conceived as an expression of free speech, consider that a prisoner may submit an op-ed article to a newspaper and have it published, perhaps with greater impact than casting a single vote.[6] |
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| —Marc Mauer, The Sentencing Project (2019)[8] | ||
Claim: Preventing incarcerated people convicted of a felony from voting would disproportionately impact minorities
In a 2019 piece on the American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) website titled "Voting Is a Right That Shouldn’t Be Taken Away," Bobby Hoffman wrote the following:
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We know people of color are disproportionately impacted by felony disenfranchisement. Many of these laws were passed during the Jim Crow era with the intent to bar minorities from voting. Disproportionate numbers of people of color continue to be prosecuted, incarcerated, and disenfranchised due to these laws. As of 2016, one in every 56 non-black voters lost their right to vote. Conversely, one in every 13 Black voters was disenfranchised.[6] |
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| —Bobby Hoffman, Advocacy & Policy Counsel, Voting Rights, ACLU (2019)[9] | ||
Opposition arguments in detail
Three arguments against allowing people convicted of a felony to vote while incarcerated are that voting is a privilege instead of an absolute right of citizenship, that part of losing freedom while incarcerated is losing the right to vote, and that allowing incarcerated people convicted of a felony to vote is unpopular with the public. This section details those arguments from a variety of sources arranged by topic.
Claim: Voting is a privilege, not an absolute right of citizenship
In a 2020 New Yorker article titled "Why shouldn't prisoners be voters," story editor Daniel A. Gross wrote:
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Incarceration prevents people from exercising many other basic rights, and while the Constitution outlaws disenfranchisement 'on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,' it levies no penalty against states that disenfranchise citizens 'for participation in rebellion, or other crime.' David Feldman, a law professor at Cambridge who has written about the voting rights of prisoners, told me that one could, of course, frame voting rights in terms of a social contract: citizens earn the franchise by following certain rules set by society and can lose the franchise if they commit specific crimes.[6] |
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| —Daniel A. Gross, The New Yorker (2020)[10] | ||
Claim: Part of losing freedom while incarcerated is losing the right to vote
In a May 2019 article on The Heritage Foundation website titled "No, Prisoners Should Not Be Voting From Their Cells," Jason Snead wrote that part of losing freedom while incarcerated is losing the right to vote.
According to its website, the Heritage Foundation says its mission is "to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense."[11]
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There is an ongoing, constructive and bipartisan national effort to reform many of our criminal justice policies. ... But that doesn't mean we should forget the fact that people in prison are there because they chose to commit a crime. And often, as the Tsarnaev case shows, those crimes are heinous. Felons lose many freedoms that law-abiding citizens enjoy. Personal liberty, the freedom of speech and expression, the right to privacy, and countless other constitutional guarantees either do not exist in prison, or are sharply curtailed.[6] |
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| —Jason Snead, The Heritage Foundation (2019)[12] | ||
Claim: Allowing incarcerated people convicted of a felony to vote is unpopular with the public
In a Vox article, freelance writer Catherine Kim reviewed the results of an online public opinion survey conducted by The Hill and HarrisX on April 27-28, 2019. The survey included 1,002 voters and had a 3.1 percentage point sampling margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.
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A majority of Americans are against giving imprisoned felons the right to vote, according to a new poll — despite ongoing conversations among 2020 Democrats about expanding enfranchisement to include all Americans. In a poll released by The Hill and Harris X, 69 percent of registered voters said people who are incarcerated for a felony should not vote. That went up to 89 percent for individuals serving time for terrorism-related crimes... One of the poll’s notable findings is that while Republicans were more likely to be against allowing imprisoned felons to vote than Democrats — 85 percent and 61 percent, respectively — a majority of both party members were still against the idea.[6] |
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| —Catherine Kim, freelance writer, Vox (2019)[13] | ||
External links
- Felon Voting Rights—National Conference of State Legislatures guide to voting rights for people convicted of a felony in each state.
- Pew Research Center—Pew Research Center article "How Americans view some of the voting policies approved at the ballot box"
See also
- Voting rights for people convicted of a felony
- Arguments for and against automatic restoration of voting rights for people convicted of a felony
Footnotes
- ↑ [http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/felon-voting-rights.aspx National Conference of State Legislatures, "Felon Voting Rights," accessed September 18, 2024
- ↑ American Civil Liberties Union, "State Criminal Re-enfranchisement Laws," accessed September 18, 2024
- ↑ Brennan Center for Justice, "Restoring the Right to Vote by State," accessed September 18, 2024
- ↑ CNN Politics, "Sanders says the right to vote should be extended ‘even for terrible people’ like Boston Marathon bomber," April 22, 2019
- ↑ The Heritage Foundation, "Allowing Felons to Vote While Incarcerated Is Reckless," October 15, 2019
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Washington Monthly, "Why Voting Isn’t A 'Privilege,'" July 30, 2021
- ↑ Northwest Florida Daily News, "Opinion: Prisoners should be allowed to vote," May 6, 2019
- ↑ ACLU, "Voting Is a Right That Shouldn’t Be Taken Away," April 17, 2019
- ↑ The New Yorker, "Why shouldn't prisoners be voters?" February 27, 2020
- ↑ The Heritage Foundation, "About Heritage," accessed September 20, 2019
- ↑ The Heritage Foundation, "No, Prisoners Should Not Be Voting From Their Cells," May 17, 2019
- ↑ Vox, "A majority of Americans don’t want to give imprisoned felons the right to vote," May 3, 2019
