Locked Out: Millions of Voters Are Disenfranchised Ahead of Midterm Elections

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October 27, 2022

By Stacy M. Brown, Afram News

Systemic racism fills prisons with Black Americans, many of whom cannot vote about issues that impact them.

With the midterm election just days away, the District of Columbia-based think tank, The Sentencing Project, has released a new report which found that 4.6 million people can’t vote because of felony convictions.

Researchers pointed out that the number amounts to one in every 50 adults, with three out of four disenfranchised living in their communities, having completed their sentences or remaining supervised while on probation or parole.

“While many states have taken steps to expand the right to vote to people with felony convictions, this report makes it clear that millions of our citizens will remain voiceless in the upcoming midterms,” Amy Fettig, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project, said in a news release.

“Felony disenfranchisement is just the latest in a long line of attempts to restrict ballot access, just like poll taxes, literacy tests, and property requirements were used in the past. It is time for our country to guarantee the right to vote for people with felony convictions.”

The report, “Locked Out 2022,” updates and expands upon 20 years of work chronicling the scope and distribution of felony disenfranchisement in the United States.

The original article includes a link to the report.

This online exhibit examines why so many Black people are in prison.

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