New Interactive Tool Helps Americans with Felony Convictions Understand Their Voting Rights

WASHINGTON — Campaign Legal Center’s Restore Your Vote program has launched a new interactive, color-coded map to illustrate the complicated nationwide patchwork of felony disenfranchisement laws. This map joins a robust set of online offerings already available at RestoreYourVote.org directed at people trying to restore their voting rights, reporters seeking to understand the national landscape, and policymakers working to improve their state laws.

Felony disenfranchisement laws silence roughly 4 million Americans and disproportionately impact communities of color. In fact, many of these laws were explicitly designed to silence Black voters and are relics of Jim Crow. Today, 4.5% of Black Americans are disenfranchised due to felony convictions, compared to 1.3% of the non-Black population.

Of the nearly 24 million Americans with past felony convictions, more than 19 million people can register to vote right now, but may not know it. This is due to a patchwork of confusing and evolving laws, rampant misinformation and government-sponsored intimidation tactics that keep Americans from exercising their freedom to vote.

In 2018, to address this issue and bridge the access gap for rights restoration, Campaign Legal Center’s Restore Your Vote program launched RestoreYourVote.org, featuring a first-of-its-kind online tool to help Americans who have been impacted by the criminal legal system understand their voting rights. This innovative online offering has become the most reliable tool available to aid individuals with felony convictions in determining their eligibility to vote — helping more than 300,000 individuals navigate voting laws in their state since its inception. It guides users through simple questions about their convictions to determine whether they can register to vote or get their right to vote restored in their state.

With its latest update, RestoreYourVote.org now also boasts an interactive, color-coded map that, for the first time, provides an accurate visual representation of voting rights for individuals with felony convictions across the country. The tool, which will be regularly updated as laws change, also links to state-specific, on-the-ground resources to help people with past felony conviction get the answers they need.

“Our democracy works best when everyone has a voice,” said Blair Bowie, director of the Restore Your Vote program at Campaign Legal Center. “Because voting rights for individuals impacted by the criminal legal system vary so much from state to state, we felt it was important to illustrate the patchwork system that currently exists. Looking at the map, it’s very clear where we need to focus our efforts and where bad laws continue to persist. Far too many people with past felony convictions sit out elections because of confusion and fear around eligibility, and the resources on RestoreYourVote.org can help clear up misinformation. These resources also can help policymakers understand if disparities exist in their state that should be remedied by legislation.”

For more information, visit RestoreYourVote.org. The Restore Your Vote team also provides free and confidential information about rights restoration at [email protected] and (888-306-8683).

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The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center advances democracy through law. We safeguard the freedom to vote, defend voters’ right to know who is spending money to influence elections, and work to ensure public trust in our elected officials.

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