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Both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, face sentencing for nonviolent felonies before Election Day.
Although it seems unlikely either will be behind bars on November 5, it’s worth noting that how and whether felons and people otherwise detained can cast election ballots has developed into a major civil rights issue in recent years.
The rules for how felons, inmates and those facing trial can cast ballots vary from state to state, and a number of recently enacted laws and ballot initiatives will change things further in 2024.
In California, where Hunter Biden lives, for instance, only people who are serving time in prison are ineligible to vote, according to a database maintained by the American Civil Liberties Union. In Delaware, where he was convicted in federal court, there are more restrictions on felons voting. In Florida, where Trump lives, there are more restrictions on felons voting than in New York, where Trump was convicted in state court.
There are only a few places – Vermont, Maine and the District of Colombia – where everyone can vote, even if they’re convicted felons serving time in prison. Everywhere else in the US places prohibitions on incarcerated felons, and some states include other prohibitions.
CNN’s Sara Murray and Kimberly Berryman traveled to Nevada, where Tuesday was primary day and, for the first time, people who are detained, for a variety of reasons, were able to vote despite their incarceration. They met inmates casting ballots for the first time in their lives.
Watch their full report.
Nevada’s state government gave felons who have been released from prison the ability to vote back in 2019. That still left a population of people who are not convicted of a felony but are detained in jail in the lurch. A new law passed this year in Nevada required jails to facilitate access to voting for those non-felons inside jails in the state. Tuesday’s primary was the first test.
“Their vote should not be any less important than the individuals that are out here,” Sadmira Ramic, a voting rights staff attorney for the ACLU of Nevada, told Murray and Berryman. “They face those barriers that we here on the outside don’t even really think about.”
One major issue is confusion. Unfounded allegations of illegitimate and illegal votes or outright rigged elections have caused confusion among inmates about where they stand, so they often don’t vote at all.
For instance, despite Florida voters overwhelmingly agreeing in 2018 to reenfranchise felons in that state, a series of actions by the legislature complicated voting for felons, leading to court battles and confusion. The state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, made a show of trying to prosecute people for illegally voting in 2022.
The ACLU has worked with voting rights groups in Nevada to make sure detained people who have the right to vote can access that right this year, but at one point threatened a lawsuit in order to make sure access to polling booths was granted by primary day.
In a presidential election that could be decided by a small fraction of votes in key states like Nevada, even a small number of additional votes could, in theory, change the outcome. Nevada is also the site of a hotly contested Senate race that could determine which party controls the Senate next year.
Jagada Chambers, a former inmate who is now a rights restoration coordinator for Silver State Voices, a voting rights group, told Murray and Berryman she hopes politicians will see the potential of asking for the votes of people who are detained.
“In Clark County, you have potential victories lying in those cells,” Chambers said.
