Dear John

Each of us has a right to be heard. But the right to vote is denied to 4.6 million Americans convicted of felonies.

Democracy delivers power to the people. But when prisoners are denied this crucial right, policymakers will systematically ignore their concerns. Rather than re-integrating those who have done, or are doing, their time, disenfranchisement keeps them outside the system. Those who feel they have no stake in civil society will remain perpetually in conflict with it.

Further, the racial injustice of the five-decade long “war on drugs” has sent huge portions of the male Black community to prison for offenses for which white people don’t get arrested. Many are still in prison even as states make cannabis legal, and crack cocaine offenses were systematically prosecuted far more strictly than the more “posh” powder form of the drug.

There is a way to improvement the civic involvement of incarcerated citizens. Tell Congress to pass the Inclusive Democracy Act, which will preserve the right to vote for all American citizens.

It stands to reason that candidates and elected representatives are most likely to take into consideration the concerns of constituents who are able to vote for them. From state to state, the laws vary: some allow both the previously and currently in prison to vote; some allow only those who have been released, and some do not allow anyone who has been convicted.

The carpetbagger days following the Civil War brought the first disenfranchisement laws for felony convictions, as white politicians in the South sought to deny newly freed Black citizens their right to vote. “Jim Crow” laws enforced racial segregation and discrimination over nearly 100 years, starting in the 1870s and clear through to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. "Jim Crow" itself was a derogatory term for Black people.

Alabama is one example: In early 1900’s, white lawmakers trumped up a variety of minor crimes that were subject to interpretation, such as “moral turpitude,” “vagrancy,” and others. Defining these poorly defined “crimes” as felonies, they systematically denied the voting rights of many Black men.

Now it’s time to end this shameful history, and to ensure that every citizen has the right to vote in our democracy. Tell your Senators and Congressperson: cosponsor and pass the Inclusive Democracy Act, to support the civic engagement of all citizens.

Thank you for helping to strengthen American democracy.  

- DFA AF Team