Efforts to restore voting rights to people with felony convictions are lagging in the Gulf South

More people with prior felony convictions will be able to vote in the Nov. 5 general election than in previous election cycles, but millions remain disenfranchised — with a greater impact in the Gulf South, a new report shows.

The national survey from the research and advocacy group The Sentencing Project quantifies the uneven toll of state-level voting restrictions on people with criminal histories.

According to estimates, in Alabama and Mississippi at least one in twenty black voters cannot vote due to a criminal offense.

Most of the people who are disenfranchised by these rules are not currently in prison, but living in their communities without the right to vote. Ryan Larson, one of the report’s authors.

“They send their children to public educational institutions, but they have no say in how local institutions are run for them,” he said.

In the Southeast, Larson said a combination of strict rules on who can vote and “punitive” legal systems tend to increase disenfranchisement in the region.

Researchers estimate that in Alabama, 5.95% of the state’s voting population is disenfranchised due to felony convictions – or more than 220,000 people.

In their numbers, Mississippi loses more than 3% of its potential voters because they have felonies, while Louisiana has more than 1%.

Nearly all states have laws restricting voting rights due to criminal convictions. Researchers found that only Maine and Vermont were the exceptions.

States variously prohibit people from voting based on their incarceration status or on probation or parole. Several states, including Alabama and Mississippi, have rules that restrict voting after a person has served their sentence.

Supporters of voting restrictions on people with felonies say voting is a privilege and that the people involved have shown no respect for the law. Opponents say the restrictions deprive people of a fundamental right and are rooted in racism.

The report estimates that about 4 million people in the U.S. are barred from voting by felony laws, a figure that has fallen by nearly a third since the 2016 election cycle.

Researchers wrote that the decline is due to activities in some states to restore voting rights to people who are in prison, on probation or parole in recent years, and to the shrinking prison population.

Nationally, the overall loss of potential voters due to felony restrictions remains enough to have any effect on the election, Larson said.

“In certain states — more swing states, where the election is very close in terms of partisan division and where disenfranchisement may be greater — this could certainly have an impact,” said Larson, a professor of criminology at Hamline University.

The report specifically highlights Florida, where it is estimated that more than 950,000 people with criminal records have been disenfranchised due to crimes, despite efforts to restore voting rights in the state.

Pushes to restore the rights of people affected by felony voting restrictions often make news in the Gulf South, such as in Mississippi, where both a judicial decision And proposed legislation working on the issue this year.

There have been changes in Louisiana over the past decade expanded voting rights to people with ancient beliefssuch as those who have been on parole for more than five years.

Charles Amos, a former incarcerated organizer of Voice of the experienced (or STEM), says many people like him can register. He works to educate people about their rights.

“When we come across people who say, I’m convicted, (I say) then I am. This is how you can register to vote,” he said.

He says convincing people to be interested in elections can be a challenge. Some tell him they think politicians will just do whatever they want, or that their vote doesn’t count.

But Amos describes pushing for the vote when he was released a few years ago after being convicted for the first time in the adult system at age 16 — too young to register.

“Before I could even qualify, I was ineligible due to a conviction,” he said.

After his release, he said voting made him “really feel part of society.” He continues to take political commitment seriously and is even running for a local seat in the Democratic party.

He didn’t win his race, but he isn’t discouraged.

“I want to show guys who were previously in prison: hey man – the world is ours. We just have to get into it,” he said.

This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a partnership between Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama, WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.