VOTING IN JAILS

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES TO #UNLOCKtheVOTE
“My voice should be
heard, even from the
incarcerated state.”
Frank Baker was detained in
Texas’ Harris County Jail but
didn’t know he was eligible to
vote until the advocacy group,
Houston Justice, helped him
register. He wishes the jail
had a better system in place
to inform detainees of their
right to vote.1

1 VOTING IN JAILS: ADVOCACY STRATEGIES TO #UNLOCKTHEVOTE

Each new election cycle presents an opportunity to improve
voter access for persons who are legally eligible to vote among
the approximately 549,000 individuals in U.S. jails.2 The vast
majority of persons in jails are eligible to vote because they are
not currently serving a sentence for a felony conviction, but are
incarcerated pretrial or sentenced to a misdemeanor offense.
However, incarcerated voters often experience significant
barriers to voting because of misinformation, institutional
bureaucracy that varies from one county/city to another, and
deprioritization among government officials.
In most states there are underdeveloped practices for people
incarcerated in prisons and jails to register or access absentee
ballots and/or polling locations. Many incarcerated residents
cannot freely communicate via phone or email with election
officials to monitor their voter registration or ballot applications.
Voter education for justice-impacted citizens is often limited
and varies across states and results in too many Americans
being left behind each election season.
Recent reforms and a growing civic infrastructure offer
opportunities to strengthen voting access and ensure the
franchise for every individual, regardless of their incarceration
status. This briefing paper provides cases that support
expansion of voting access and can inform state and local
advocacy efforts.

1. Expanding Voting Access in Jails
Advances Racial Justice and
Democracy
Obstacles to voting by incarcerated people
disproportionately impacts people of color. Black
and Latinx people make up 52%3 of persons in jails
nationally. Disparate outcomes transcend what can
be accounted for by racial disparities in criminal
offending. Black Americans, especially Black men,
are more likely to be stopped by police, searched by
police, shot by police, arrested by police, charged by
prosecutors with more severe crimes, incarcerated
pretrial, receive higher bail amounts, have lower
diversion rates, and receive harsher sentences than
similarly situated white Americans and experience
lifelong collateral consequences including felony
disenfranchisement.4
Racial justice advocates and democracy champions
in New York City recognize this interplay, and, as
a result, monitor New York City’s Department
of Corrections’ (NY DOC) facilitation of voter
registration and absentee voting for incarcerated
persons, many of whom are disproportionately
Black and Latinx. At Rikers Island jail complex, the
population is about 56% Black, 33% Latinx, and 7.5 %
white.5 In 2021 more than 30 human rights and racial
justice groups, like LatinoJustice PRLDEF and Color
of Change, sent a letter to city officials addressing
issues for incarcerated voters. The letter highlighted
observations made by the New York Legal Aid Society
which included people not being provided accurate
information about their voting rights, lack of votingrelated informational posters in high-traffic common
areas, and negligence of correctional staff to correct
misinformation that continues to deprive citizens of
their voting rights.6 Local civic engagement groups
and their volunteers collaborated with the NY DOC to
assist in registering more than 1500 people across
NYC jails between 2016-2019.7 Voter engagement
efforts include hosting in-person voter registration
drives, sending volunteers to Rikers Island to talk to
eligible voters, and encouraging them to exercise
their right to vote.
2 VOTING IN JAILS: ADVOCACY STRATEGIES TO #UNLOCKTHEVOTE

2. Community Groups Can Partner With
Jail and Election Officials

“[Voting while in jail] is important
because that population is most
impacted by the laws, policies,
and practices that are enforced
or pushed by our politicians. Most
times, laws and policies affect
them more than individuals who are
walking in our community on a daily
basis.”8
- Percy Glover, Genesee County (Flint) Jail
Voting Ambassador

Residents detained in jail without a felony conviction
may legally vote in every state. An increasing number
of advocacy organizations around the country work
in coalition with local jail and election officials to
facilitate voter registration and absentee voting, while
other stakeholder coalitions are working to guarantee
same-day voting for incarcerated residents.
An example of these productive collaborations is the
Voting Access for All Coalition’s (“VAAC”) work with
county officials in Michigan. VAAC registers eligible
voters in jail and supports ballot access by engaging
jail officials and county clerks to support voter
education and electoral participation. Michigan jails
detain more than 17,000 people in 88 facilities across
83 counties.9 In 2021, The VAAC surveyed Michigan
county officials to document jail voting policies and
found that 55% of Michigan’s counties do have a
policy or procedure to facilitate voter registration and
absentee ballot access.10 The VAAC worked with jail
and election officials and other community partners
to expand its Vote by Mail in Jail program across
the state of Michigan, assisting incarcerated voters
with registering and requesting absentee ballots.

The coalition partnered with jail and detention
facilities by developing regionally specific voter
educational materials, training volunteers to host
registration events at their local jails, and organizing
volunteers to aid and address voter concerns. The
VAAC hosts Jailed Voter Information Sessions and
provides program participants with voter registration
applications, absentee ballot request paperwork,
nonpartisan voter guides and election deadline
reminders at no cost to facilities or voters.

4. Jails Can Be Polling Locations

3. One Person Can Launch a Jail Based
Voter Registration Initiative
The last presidential election inspired many residents
to register new voters and support civic education.
During 2020, the South Dakota League of Women
Voters (LWV) launched a jail based voter registration
initiative. Longtime activist Cathy Brechtelsbauer, a
LWV volunteer, participated in a voting in jails webinar
hosted by The Sentencing Project and established
the initiative through a solo organizing campaign
with innovative tactics. Cathy’s leadership led her
to meet with county officials including the Warden
of the Minnehaha County Jail in Sioux Falls to make
some simple requests:
r

1. Allow eligible voters currently housed
at the jail access to voter registration
cards and non-partisan election
education materials;
2. Provide a designated ballot box for
absentee ballots.

\..

In addition to the Warden, Cathy reached out to
election officials at the county level, and national
organizations, like The Sentencing Project and
Campaign Legal Center, for support. By October 13,
2020, just 6 days before the voter registration deadline
in South Dakota, there were voter registration packets
on the library carts of the Minnehaha County Jail
moving from dorm to dorm and cell to cell.

3 VOTING IN JAILS: ADVOCACY STRATEGIES TO #UNLOCKTHEVOTE

Ensuring voting while incarcerated both maintains
continuity for electoral participation and supports
lifelong voter engagement. Yet most persons
detained in jail who are eligible to vote do not cast their
ballots. Current jail-based voter programs that rely on
absentee voting often experience various challenges,
including low incarcerated voter engagement.
Moreover, jail administrators often lack knowledge
about voting laws, do not prioritize incarcerated voter
access programs, and do not address bureaucratic
obstacles to establishing a voting process within
institutions. Increasingly, advocates and officials are
recognizing that establishing a polling location in local
jails will improve voter access and turnout far better
than jail-based absentee voting and voter registration
initiatives. Two recent examples of this expansion of
voting access occurred in Illinois and Texas where
community organizations and corrections officials
worked together to authorize polling locations at their
local jails.
Cook County Jail in Chicago incarcerates about
6,100 residents each day.11 Many of these individuals
are eligible to vote under Illinois law but access to
the ballot was still difficult in the jail. In order to
address these voter access issues, in 2019, Illinois
lawmakers adopted Senate Bill 2090, authorizing a
polling location in the Cook County jail, following an
advocacy campaign supported by ACLU of Illinois,
Chicago Votes, League of Women Voters, Illinois

Justice Project, Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil
Rights, and Unlock Civics. The law requires Illinois
counties with populations greater than 3 million to
set up a voting location at their local jail allowing for
in-person voting and same-day registration.12 Cook
County is the only county in the state with a population
larger than 3 million. During the 2020 presidential
election, around 2,200 people voted from four polling
places across the Cook County jails.13 State groups
have continued efforts to guarantee voting from jails.
In 2021, lawmakers passed SB 825, a comprehensive
voting rights law that includes a provision allowing
each county sheriff to set up polling places in their
local jails.14 Previously, people in those jails could
vote only by absentee ballot.
In Texas, community groups like Houston Justice’s
Project Orange, the Texas Organizing Project, and the
Texas Civil Rights Project helped establish a polling
location in 2021 at the Harris County (Houston) Jail15
which detains about 9,000 people.16 Project Orange
originally launched its campaign in 2018 to bring
voter registration to the Harris County Jail, establish
a polling location there, and educate the four county
commissioners and county judges about jail-based
voting in Texas.

“Being able to have Harris County
Jail as a polling location is a product
of years of advocacy and work by
organizations across the county.
Our office is honored to provide an
opportunity to enfranchise voters in
the Harris County Jail.”17
- Isabel Longoria, Harris County Elections
Administrator

4 VOTING IN JAILS: ADVOCACY STRATEGIES TO #UNLOCKTHEVOTE

Establishing a jail-based polling location required
collaborating with officers, checking with legal
experts, and ensuring access to the jail for volunteers
to staff the polls. Local community organizations also
worked with the Voter and Registration Community
Coordinator for the Harris County Elections
Department to conduct outreach to underrepresented
groups by partnering with local churches, schools,
and the jail to expand voter participation through
registration and ballot access efforts.18 As a result
of these efforts, incarcerated residents voted at
the jail in 2022 during the spring primary. And due
to the efforts of community based organizations,
jail and election officials have expressed continued
commitment to improving electoral participation
practices for incarcerated voters.

5. Jail-Based Plans Can Address Local
Voting Requirements
Depending on the locality, voting requirements can
surface barriers to voter registration that may seem
difficult to overcome in a jail setting. But voting rights
advocates and local officials can work to overcome
those barriers with planning and support.
A good example of this type of local planning
occurred in Oklahoma which has one of the highest
state incarceration rates in the country and more
than 10,621 people in jail.19 In Oklahoma a state law
also makes jail-based voting particularly difficult by
mandating that all absentee ballots be notarized.20
This voting rights issue came to the attention of
Oklahoma City Council Member Nikki Nice, who
represents constituents detained at the Oklahoma
County Detention Center. In late 2020, after attending
a webinar hosted by The Sentencing Project (TSP)
about jail-based voting,21 Council Member Nice was
inspired to join weekly coalition calls organized by
the newly-formed Jail-based Voting Coalition. This

coalition of national, statewide, and local partners,
anchored by TSP, shares best practices, strategies,
and resources including policy memos and sample
letters to the editor to support voting in jails. As a
result, Nice convened a stakeholder group of local
Oklahoma City officials, including agency staff
responsible for jail administration and county
elections administration to support county jail voter
registration and absentee voting. Nice’s leadership
resulted in a concrete plan to facilitate voter
registration and absentee voting to eligible voters at
the jail that also meets the challenges of the state
law requiring the notarization of absentee ballots.
Nice worked with officials in the county clerk’s office
and the election administration agency to facilitate
public notaries entering the jail to allow incarcerated
voters to have their absentee ballots notarized.

6. Encourage Jails to Host Candidate
Forums
Advocates, officials and citizens can help build
a culture that includes people in jail as part of the
democracy by engaging them in civic participation
and by informing elected officials of the needs of
incarcerated people and problems with our criminal
legal system. Unfortunately, direct contact between
elected officials, candidates for political office, and
incarcerated voters has rarely been facilitated in our
political process. But this is beginning to change.
In recent election cycles, stakeholder coalitions
worked to support civic education and facilitate voter
education by hosting candidate forums at local jails.
During the 2021 election cycle in Michigan, Genesee
County Sheriff Chris Swanson and the IGNITE (Inmate
Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education)
program co-hosted a candidates’ forum for residents
at the jail. Over 20 city council candidates attended
the “Meet the Candidates’’ Town Hall.22 Residents at
the jail and candidates discussed ways to improve
public education and support reentry programs.23

5 VOTING IN JAILS: ADVOCACY STRATEGIES TO #UNLOCKTHEVOTE

Similarly, in 2018, officials at the Suffolk County
House of Corrections in Boston, Massachusetts
authorized a forum for residents to hear from the
six candidates who ran for district attorney. As
Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins pointed
out, he wanted district attorney candidates to hear
from people in his jail who are directly affected by
prosecutor practices.24 During the candidate forum,
voters at the Suffolk County forum asked candidates
about prosecutorial practices resulting in plea deals
and an aging incarcerated population.25

Conclusion
The nation’s mass incarceration problem has led
to record levels of disenfranchisement. But many
justice-impacted residents, including those in pretrial
jail detention, incarcerated in certain states on a
probation or parole violation, or sentenced for a
misdemeanor, are eligible to vote while in jail. Yet even
when the law permits certain individuals to vote while
incarcerated, many remain unable to vote because of
obstacles to electoral participation, including lack
of polling places and an inability to register to vote.
People in jail are also often reluctant to exercise the
franchise due to fear and lack of awareness.
Democracy advocates and stakeholders must include
incarcerated voters in their democracy initiatives to
improve voting in jail practices. With the end of felony
disenfranchisement in Washington, DC in 202026
and the introduction of similar measures to expand
voting to all persons with felony convictions in other
states, building the infrastructure for democratic
participation in local jails not only expands voter
access to strengthen our democracy, it can also help
guarantee ballot access for all incarcerated citizens
in the United States.

Endnotes
1

F. Baker (personal communication, March 2018).
Minton, T and Zeng Z. Jail Inmates in 2020 - Statistical Tables, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Washington DC.
3
Ibid.
4
The Sentencing Project. (2018). Report to the United Nations on Racial Disparities in the US Criminal Justice System.
5
Scrivener L, Tomascak S, Bond E, et al. (2021) New York City Jail Population Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay
College.
6
The Legal Aid Society (April 1, 2021), [Letter regarding Voting in NYC Jails].
7
O’Hara, A. (2018) Rikers Voter Registration Drive Gains Momentum, Gothamist.
8
Bill H.836. 2021 192nd General Court, (MA. 2021). https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/H836.
9 Staff. (2022) National Institute of Corrections Michigan.
10
Voting Access for All Coalition, and Nation Outside. (2021). Ensuring the Right to Vote: How to Expand Voting Access in
Michigan Jails.
11
Cook County’s Sheriff’s Office. (2020) About the Cook County Department of Corrections. Corrections.
12
Porter, N. (2020). Voting in Jails. The Sentencing Project.
13
Pew. (2021) Many in Jail Can Vote, but Exercising That Right Isn’t Easy. Pew Research Center.
14
Senate Bill 0825, 2021 102nd General Assembly (IL. 2021). https://legiscan.com/IL/text/SB0825/id/2417950
15
Love C and DeBenedetto P. (2021) The Harris County Jail was used as a polling place for eligible incarcerated voters on
Tuesday. Houston Public Media.
16
Lerner, K. (2022) In Houston, people in jail can still go to the polls. States Newsroom.
17
Ibid.
18
E. McDonald (personal communication, January 12, 2022).
19
Minton T, Beatty L, and Zeng Z. (2021) Correctional Populations in the United States, 2019 – Statistical Tables, Bureau of
Justice Statistics. Washington DC.
20
Oklahoma State Election Board. (2022 Feb. 2). Absentee Voting in Oklahoma Frequently Asked Questions for Notaries
Public. FAQ for Notaries Public https://oklahoma.gov/elections/voters/notary-services/faq-notaries-public.html
21
N. Nikki (personal communication, January 2022).
22
See video: Genesee County Sheriff’s Office. (2022, March 23). 2021 Meet the Candidates Town Hall. Facebook. https://
fb.watch/bXCthDgg0R/.
23
Goetz, D. (2021) Genesee County Jail inmates hear from 22 local candidates at new forum. MLIVE.
24
Becker, D. (2018) In Possible First, Suffolk County District Attorney Candidates Hold Forum In Jail. WBUR Local.
25
Seele, K. (2018) Inmates Question Prospective Prosecutors in Jailhouse Campaign Debate. New York Times.
26
Zausmer Weil, J and Wiggins, O. (2020) D.C. and Maryland have new policies allowing prisoners to vote. Making it happen is hard. The Washington Post.
2

THE
SENTENCING
PROJECT
RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY FOR REFORM

6 VOTING IN JAILS: ADVOCACY STRATEGIES TO #UNLOCKTHEVOTE

This briefing paper was written by Durrel Douglas, Jail-Based
Voting Initiative Organizer at The Sentencing Project.
Published July 2022.
The Sentencing Project promotes effective and humane
responses to crime that minimize imprisonment and
criminalization of youth and adults by promoting racial, ethnic,
economic, and gender justice.