John,

After last week’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Donald Trump will become the first felon to appear on the presidential ballot as a major party nominee. But, while felons are allowed to run for president, did you know that in the 2022 midterm elections, more than 4 million Americans were denied the right to vote because of felony disenfranchisement laws?¹

Felony disenfranchisement laws are rooted in racism, white supremacy, and call back to some of the darkest, most shameful moments in our country’s history.

After the Civil War, when Black men were enfranchised via the 15th Amendment, many states in the former Confederacy―and some in the North―began punitively criminalizing Black people’s existence.²

At the Alabama state constitutional convention in 1901, the delegates explicitly stated their primary goal was establishing white supremacy and that the best way to do that would be by expanding the state's felony disenfranchisement laws to include more trivial crimes.³

To combat racist felony disenfranchisement laws, Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) have introduced the Inclusive Democracy Act of 2023. This legislation would eliminate disenfranchisement and give power back to marginalized communities.⁴

Click here to send a direct message to your members of Congress, telling them to co-sponsor and pass the Inclusive Democracy Act of 2023 now.

In America today, 1 in 13 Black people of voting age are disenfranchised―that’s 7.4% of the U.S. Black population not able to have their voices heard at the ballot box.⁵

The Inclusive Democracy Act would:

• Automatically restore voting rights in federal elections to all people who have criminal convictions

• Bar the prosecution of Americans who are incarcerated and complete an election ballot for an election they are not eligible to vote in

• Get rid of state-level barriers that prevent people with criminal convictions―those currently incarcerated and those who have been released―from exercising their inalienable right to vote in federal elections

Together, let’s keep fighting for an inclusive democracy where everyone can make their voice heard. Send a message to your representative today and urge them to co-sponsor and pass the Inclusive Democracy Act now.

Thank you for taking action today,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs

¹ Locked out 2022: Estimates of people denied voting rights due to a felony conviction
² Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
³ Alabama’s 1901 Constitution: Instrument of Power
⁴ National Voting in Prison Coalition Praises the Landmark Introduction of Inclusive Democracy Act of 2023
⁵ State-Level Estimates of Felony Disenfranchisement, 2016