Ideas We Should Steal: Automatic Voter Registration for Returning Citizens

The Philadelphia Citizen, 09/16/24: “Ideas We Should Steal:Automatic Voter Registration for Returning Citizens

Sergio ‘Serge’ Hyland gets emotional when he talks about his work canvassing formerly incarcerated individuals in Pennsylvania.

Hyland spent nearly 21 years in Pennsylvania state prisons, starting when he was 19. Many of the people he meets have similar experiences. Like him, some have spent time in solitary confinement. When he talks with them, he’s empathetic. Many feel disillusioned by voting. The system failed them, they say, why should they participate?

Others aren’t voting for a simpler reason, however. ‘I’ve encountered several people who believe that, because they have a criminal record, they can’t vote,’ says Hyland, who now works for the Abolitionist Law Center (ALC) as a parole justice advocate and assistant to ALC Executive Director Robert Saleem Holbrook.

It’s a common misconception. Even Rapper Meek Mill, in a video on Twitter, said he didn’t know if he could vote while endorsing Tom Wolf for governor in 2018. (The Twitterverse was quick to correct him.)

The truth is, since 2000, Pennsylvanians convicted of felonies can vote the moment they’re no longer incarcerated. Yet in PA, only 66,056 of the 203,409 people released from state prisons between January 2000 and October 2023 are registered to vote. This tracks nationwide: People who have been incarcerated are one of the largest disenfranchised populations in the U.S. This large untapped voting bloc that could potentially swing big elections won by modest margins.”

Read the full article here.