Ex-Felons Sue For Uniform Process to Restore Voting Rights

“There’s no standard place where someone can go within their county to ask for this or a statewide office to ask for it so there’s no formal initiation mechanism,” says Blair Bowie with the Campaign Legal Center, one of the groups behind the lawsuit. “That matters a lot in this particular case because we’re talking about the key to the exercise of the fundamental right to vote. So it’s really important that processes in place be uniform and fair.” Local officials are not required to formally explain why a COR may be denied. And errors, she adds, are common when local officials try to determine which outstanding court costs or restitutions need to be paid to get a certificate. “The cost of these errors is that people lose their voice.”

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