Colorado Inmates Get Help Exercising Their Right to Vote

Person-to-person outreach there has had a strong impact. Before the coalition began its work in 2016, Van Cise-Simonet Detention Center program manager Andrew Jones estimated 10 inmates registered to vote.

“It wasn’t on a large scale,” Jones said. “Quite honestly, even with us being a law-enforcement agency, we were not aware that you could vote if you had a certain classification or certain record, so not only are the inmates being educated on this whole process.”

He added: “As long as they get the opportunity, you’re guaranteed that they are going to speak their voice. They say, ‘Look, we’re going to vote for who we think is best’ and they do it from the heart or with their education.”

While access to ballots is being facilitated across the state, inmate access to ballot information is not consistent. Inmates in Denver receive the state “blue book,” a guide detailing the pros and cons to various ballot measures. Inmates in other counties who do not receive individual information packets must glean information from television and print media sources. Inmates allowed library access – in facilities with libraries – might also access election literature in that way.

Making resources available to those who ask for them is enough, said state Rep. Timothy Leonard, R-Jefferson, who raised similar concerns when the parole voter bill was in committee.

“Incarcerated people have the right to vote and the state should never stand between that,” Leonard said. “That’s an entirely different issue than ‘Does the state have any responsibility, proactively especially and with funds, to target a specific demographic of folks to register to vote?’ Because does that mean the state cares more about that person voting than that person themselves cares about their right to vote?”

Neither the state nor the nonprofits mandate inmates register or vote, but Cooper said this work is important because a large number of inmates don’t understand their right to vote.

“There is a suburban and urban myth historically in Colorado and throughout the nation that if you have a felony you cannot vote,” Cooper said. “We knew it was important as an organization when we started to myth bust.”

In addition to having a voice on who fills seats in the attorney general’s office and who wears the sheriff’s badge, voter enfranchisement campaigns can be a powerful gateway issue into greater political engagement.

“This is anecdotal, but I’ve done this work for several years now and in states where there’s been active voter enfranchisement campaigns that has been a first step in helping to politically inspire formerly incarcerated residents,” said Nicole Porter, director of advocacy at the Washington, D.C.-based Sentencing Project. “Those residents have gone on to become some of the strongest community organizers who are doing community and political engagement.”

For others, voting is the first step in moving forward.

While awaiting an October court date, James C. registered to vote.

He said he was too caught up in the day-to-day to really study the issues, but “it’s a form of ID so I can reestablish residency here and get Social Security cards and get back into the work field and because I want to make a difference.”

Cooper added he wants to hear the voices of the “invisible voting bloc” speak in the election, not just for the auxiliary benefits but because it is their right.

“This is not something that we feel is a privilege, it’s their constitutional right and I think it’s important to emphasize that,” Cooper said. “This is not something that voters are asking permission to do – it is something that they have a right to do.”

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