Restoration for Citizens with Felony Convictions
Election Reform Spotlight On Voting Rights
June 14-15, 2002 Atlanta, GA
(My own comment is that this is insane.)
Overview
Demos, Democracy South, and dozens of other local, regional and national organizations convened a two-day conference on voting rights restoration for citizens with felony convictions, and other model election reforms on June 14-15, 2002, in Atlanta, GA. Nearly 130 grassroots activists, government reform advocates, criminal justice policy experts, and clergy from sixteen states attended. Participants discussed the roots and consequences of felony disenfranchisement laws, explored opportunities for legal challenges and policy changes, and developed action plans for voting rights restoration campaigns in five southeast states – North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama.
As appropriate for a conference spotlighting the restoration of voting rights to citizens with felony convictions, former prisoners played a prominent role throughout the proceedings, and were substantially represented as attendees. Anderson C. Hill, II of Florida and Robert Fahim Martin of Georgia, both of whom have been incarcerated for felony convictions addressed the audience at the start of each day. Mr. Hill, now a consultant affiliated with the Advancement Project, shared his struggle to regain his voting rights. Mr. Martin, now a member of the Kalonji Brotherhood, pointed out the importance of voting as a part of ex-felons’ societal reintegration.
Workshops included:
Disenfranchisement and Other Erosions of Democracy
Human rights advocates presented disenfranchisement as an infringement of basic human rights resulting in an erosion of democracy. With presentations from Democracy South, Project South, the Sentencing Project, and the National Center for Human Rights Education, the workshop explored the interplay between rising incarceration rates, racially-charged fear of crime, corporate profit, campaign donations from the prison industry, and electoral gains. Presenters also discussed the societally-imposed obstacles that create a ‘civic death’ for ex-offenders who are attempting to reintegrate into society. These obstacles reach beyond voting restrictions to include prohibitions on public housing placements, public benefits, federally subsidized higher education loans, and an assortment of state licenses, including those for barbers, child care workers and others. Rooted in racist, Reconstruction-era public policies, America’s disenfranchisement laws are in contravention of the International Covenant for Human Rights.
Local Voices-Successes and Challenges
Advocates from Demos, the NAACP Prison Project-Southeast, ACLU-Florida, Boston Vote and Connecticut’s Democracy Works shared their multi-pronged approaches to reenfranchisement. They were joined by an official of the Georgia Department of Corrections, who discussed his agency’s new initiative to ensure that people leaving probation and parole are informed of their eligibility to vote. The best practices presented by advocates included setting up bus tours promoting re-enfranchisement efforts in Florida, a state that permanently disenfranchises ex-felons; the establishment of NAACP Prison chapters that focus on the political education of prisoners; and legislative advocacy campaigns that resulted in people on probation regaining their right to vote in Connecticut. An advocate from Massachusetts shared the organizing and media messaging lessons learned from her state’s losing battle to defeat an initiative stripping away the right to vote from incarcerated citizens.
The Political Consequences of Disenfranchisement
A nationally-renown academic reviewed his analysis of the impact of an electorate artificially reduced by disenfranchisement laws. Disenfranchisement policies directly impact a huge and increasing number of citizens, and serve to skew election results. This researcher detailed the statistics and shared his findings of the impact of these state laws on national electoral politics. For example, his results suggest that felon disfranchisement played a decisive role in several U.S. gubernatorial and Senate elections, and contributed to establishing a Republican Senate majority in the 1990s.
Reform Through the Courts: The Impact and Limitations of Litigation
Attorneys from the Advancement Project, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law reviewed disenfranchisement laws, regulations and policies in the five target states. They analyzed past and present litigation, and explored opportunities for mounting future lawsuits the Southeast region. The presenters also cautioned the conferees about the limitations of such litigation, and the need for community input and support for such efforts.
Communications and Messaging Strategy
In a two-part session, communications experts from the SPIN Project and Demos covered the use of communications campaigns to reach the general public as well as strategic uses targeting policymakers and impacted communities. This workshop focused on building state advocacy capacity to counter the often racist stereotyping and scapegoating messages of those opposed to voting rights for all citizens. Suggestions included spotlighted the injustice of stripping voting rights from citizens, and ensuring that constituencies concerned about crime understood the links between disenfranchisement, civic disengagement and recidivism. Another media strategy tip was prioritizing the building of broad coalitions that include unusual allies who can address concerns of the public as well as policymakers from a variety of perspectives.
State Break-outs: Developing Powerful Coalitions for Voting Rights Restoration
Conference attendees from each of the five target states held strategy sessions to share their own local work and knowledge of the political landscape, and create an action plan. These plans include state-wide voting rights restoration bus tours, legislative campaigns to replace clemency and appeal processes with automatic re-enfranchisement policies, and reviewing litigation possibilities. Every state also committed to build a strong and diverse coalition, including engaging with criminal justice officials to institutionalize the notification of ex-prisoners when they become re-enfranchised.
Federal Electoral Reform: Impact and Opportunities for the South
National policy experts from Demos, the Center for Policy Alternatives, the NAACP National Voter Fund, and the Center for Voting and Democracy discussed the impact of pending federal election reform on Southern states. These speakers pointed out that as state legislatures consider election law amendments in order to comply with federal legislation, social justice activists will have the opportunity to advocate for reform policies including Election Day Voter Registration, Instant Run-off Voting and other alternative voting systems, and state-wide computerized voter registry systems.
demos-usa.org
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