DeSantis’ prosecutions of people in the community who were returning home serve
as a reminder of how important mass incarceration is to American elections. He and
others who use fear mongering to promote conversation about election integrity
assert that current and past inmates are widely involved in voter fraud. That is
untrue, to put it simply. But despite the fact that it has nothing to do with voter fraud,
there is a sad truth that mass incarceration does have an effect on our elections.
Jails and prisons, on the other hand, serve to lower the number of people who are
eligible to vote by preventing them from exercising their constitutional rights, and
they are commonly used to gerrymander voting districts in a way that disadvantages
communities of color.
In 2018, 64% of Floridians decided to change the state constitution to allow those
who have been convicted of specific offenses to exercise their right to vote. The
decision was the result of years of planning by local campaigners and was a part of a
national push to give prisoners coming home their right to vote.
Between 2016 and 2021, voting rights reforms were implemented in sixteen states
and the District of Columbia. Their efforts resulted in the repeal of legislation that
date back to the Reconstruction era, when state legislatures sought to deny
citizenship to those convicted of crimes they believed were mostly perpetrated by
Black people. A felony conviction currently prevents 6.2 percent of the adult Black
population from voting, compared to 1.7 percent of non-Black voters.
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