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John,
Black Americans are disproportionately imprisoned in the United States. Although they represent only 12% of the U.S. population, they make up 38% of the prison population. And just like that, an already marginalized community is further disenfranchised, as these citizens have lost their right to vote.
These high rates of incarceration exacerbate the sobering statistic, from Human Rights Watch, that Black men in the U.S. are disenfranchised at a rate 10 times that of white men. In 2020, over 50,000 Black people and over 77,000 Latinx people were denied the vote in California due to being incarcerated.
A bill currently under consideration in California could change all this. If passed by the state legislature, Assembly Constitutional Amendment 4 (ACA 4) will then go before the voters, who will decide whether to restore the vote to incarcerated people.
Sign the petition here to show your support for California ACA 4, restoring the right to vote to over 100,000 incarcerated California citizens.
If passed at the national level, a federal version of this amendment could return the right to vote to nearly 2 million Americans.
Amongst the 95% of prisoners who are eventually released back home, civic participation in voting is an important factor for reducing recidivism. Research has shown that people who vote while imprisoned or shortly afterward are 50% less likely to ever be arrested again.
Overcoming this under-recognized yet pervasive form of voter suppression, Maine, Vermont, and Washington DC have already restored voting rights to citizens in prison.
The right to vote is not a privilege, it’s a right and a responsibility of citizenship. To take away such a basic right alienates the disenfranchised from mainstream society.
Sign the petition: Let’s pass ACA 4 in California and at the federal level to restore voting rights to all American citizens serving in prison.
Thank you for your commitment to expanding justice and democracy.
- Amanda
Amanda Ford, Director
Democracy for America
Advocacy Fund
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