Frustrated by what they see as a regression on access to the ballot box, voting rights advocates have taken several states to court.
An election judge directs voters outside a polling place in the Pearl Park Recreation Center in Minneapolis on August 11, 2020.
But in more recent months, state officials in North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia have taken steps to make it far more difficult for people with felony convictions to register to vote, leading to widespread concern among voting rights activists who have steadily and successfully changed laws in states around the country in recent years.
Last month, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled against the Campaign Legal Center after it sued the state for forcing a resident who had been convicted of a felony, served his sentence and later had his voting rights restored, all in Virginia, to also prove he served his parole and paid all court costs associated with that felony to Tennessee officials before being eligible to vote.
Voting rights and criminal justice advocates have for the past decade built a political infrastructure across the country to educate and encourage state legislators to pass measures that allow people with past felony convictions to either vote upon leaving prison or never lose their right to vote; they’ve had widespread success, sometimes with bipartisan support.
“I do think we’re trending in the right direction,” said Bowie of the Campaign Legal Center. “But backlash is part and parcel of progress. Power doesn’t give up power easily. And some people view restoring voting rights as a sort of a power shift.” “We take our responsibility to consider re-enfranchisement seriously,” she wrote. “Because the constitution gives Virginia’s governors sole discretion on the restoration of rights, each governor determines how he will make these important decisions individually.”“He has made it much harder for formerly incarcerated people to have their rights restored,” said Rachel Homer, counsel for Protect Democracy, a nonprofit that advocates for expanding voting rights.
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