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Making Waves with Voter Registration in Prisons

Groundbreaking voter registration work by DPA and The Ordinary People's Society (TOPS), an Alabama faith-based nonprofit organization, has ruffled feathers in the state's political establishment. The Alabama Republican Party has raised concerns about possible voter fraud in response to legitimate efforts to register thousands ofeligible potential voters who are currently in prison and to raise awareness among formerly incarcerated people about their voting rights.

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Commute Crack Sentences in Time for the Holidays

To President Bush’s credit, two of the six individuals for whom he has most recently granted clemency were serving time for unjust crack cocaine offenses.  Sign this petition and remind him that he can expand that number by using his clemency power to end a drug war injustice.

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Fayetteville, AR, Votes on Marijuana Measure

Voters in Fayetteville, Arkansas, will have the chance to make adult marijuana possession the lowest law enforcement priority at the ballot box in November. This initiative is led by Sensible Fayetteville, a coalition of groups that includes the Alliance for Reform of Drug Policy in Arkansas.

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Put "Yes on 5" on TV

Recently, California’s major law enforcement groups tried  (unsucessfully) to get Proposition 5 — the largest sentencing and prison reform in U.S. history — thrown off the state ballot.  Opposition to Prop. 5 is mounting from some of the staunchest opponents of criminal justice reform in the state but, with your help, we'll reach TV audiences, make ourselves heard above our opponents' lies and fear-mongering and win in November.

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Ethan Nadelmann Meets Latin American Leaders

DPA Executive Director Ethan Nadelmann was invited to speak at the second meeting of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy earlier this month in Bogota, Colombia, where he met with the presidents of three Latin American countries. An extensive interview with Nadelmann was published in Brazil's leading newspaper, O Globo.  

The Sentencing Project today released a report, Expanding the Vote: State Felony Disenfranchisement Reform, 1997- 2008, that documents a reform movement over the past eleven years that has resulted in more than 760,000 citizens having regained their right to vote. The report found that since 1997, 19 states have amended felony disenfranchisement policies in an effort to reduce their restrictiveness and expand voter eligibility. The report's release coincides with the introduction of new legislation in Congress to secure federal voting rights for nonincarcerated citizens.

The report finds:  

• Nine states either repealed or amended lifetime disenfranchisement laws.
• Two states expanded voting rights to persons under community supervision (probation and parole).
• Five states eased the restoration process for persons seeking to have their right to vote restored after completing sentence.
• Three states improved data and information sharing.

The report documents the rates of disenfranchisement and the racially disparate impact of felony disenfranchisement policy in the 19 states that have enacted reforms.  It also highlights the profound personal impact that this policy has had on those who have regained their voting rights, or continue to be disenfranchised. 

Recent state reforms include:

• Maryland repealed its post-sentence voting ban in 2007, restoring the right to vote to 52,000 residents.
• Florida eased the complexity of its restoration process for persons who have completed a sentence for a non-violent offense.
• Governors in Kentucky and Virginia expressed support for voting rights for persons who completed sentence by easing the restoration process and expediting restoration applications, respectively.
• North Carolina and Louisiana passed notification bills mandating that the state notify individuals of the law regarding voting rights and the process of registration.