WASHINGTON (CN) — A coalition of Senate Democrats lauded the Justice Department on Thursday for its efforts to expand voting access among people in federal custody but said there were extra steps the agency could be taking to ensure incarcerated people can exercise their civil duty.
As part of a sweeping executive order in 2021 aimed at expanding voter access across several sectors, the Biden administration ordered the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Prisons to provide educational materials related to voting and voter registration to people in federal custody. The agencies were also directed to help incarcerated individuals register to vote.
In the years since the White House directive, the Bureau of Prisons has made progress in expanding voter access among federal inmates, Senate Democrats told Attorney General Merrick Garland and Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters in a letter dated Thursday.
The lawmakers, led by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, applauded several agency-level policy changes implemented since 2021, including a program aimed at providing incarcerated people with informational handouts detailing their eligibility to vote and how to cast a ballot from federal prison.
“Hundreds of individuals inside federal prisons have successfully registered and voted in recent elections,” the Democrats wrote, pointing to a report from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights which found that the Bureau of Prisons had made an “exemplary” effort to “significantly increase voting access” for incarcerated people.
Despite those positive developments, however, the Democrats told Garland and Peters the government could be doing even more to bring federal inmates into the electorate.
Current Bureau of Prisons policy does not require the agency to share voter information with local officials overseeing elections, the lawmakers said. The government has historically demurred from providing elections officials with information from its inmate records system in part because the 1974 Privacy Act bars such disclosures except in certain circumstances.
Without a proper idea of who is eligible to vote, however, the Democrats pointed out that “it can be difficult to know whether voter registration materials and ballots successfully reach incarcerated voters.”
The lawmakers recommended that the Bureau of Prisons seek an exception to the Privacy Act’s provisions, known as a routine use exception, that would allow it to share inmates’ election information.
The government has already leveraged that legal loophole for other purposes. A group of civil rights advocacy groups including the League of Women Voters told Garland in 2021 that the Bureau of Prisons cites routine use exceptions to provide state and local authorities information about incarcerated people’s eligibility for unemployment benefits or a driver’s license, among other things.
An exception that encompasses voter information, the groups argued at the time, would be equally applicable under the law.
Meanwhile, the Senate Democrats on Thursday also suggested the Bureau of Prisons give a special designation to mail from election officials that filters through federal prisons.
The agency has already adopted a practice of considering incoming and outgoing mail related to voting and elections as “legal” or “special” mail, the lawmakers wrote, but “this practice is not always followed.”
“We encourage BOP to consider comprehensively adding election agencies to the list of offices for which all correspondence is considered ‘special mail,’” the Democrats said. They also leaned on the agency to continue its work supporting voters with disabilities and to provide federal inmates with additional elections information, such as details about candidates or ballot initiatives.
The lawmakers asked Garland and Peters to provide Congress with an update on the efforts to expand ballot access, including an explanation of how it is working to get inmates’ voter information to election officials. They also requested information about accommodations the Bureau of Prisons provides to voters with disabilities, such as American Sign Language interpreters, Braille and audible announcements.
The letter requested a response from the Justice Department by April 12, or in roughly two weeks.
Democrats have doubled down in recent months on a push to expand and safeguard voting rights. Durbin and dozens of his colleagues reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act in February. The measure, named for the late congressman and civil rights activist, is aimed at affirming federal protections against voting discrimination enshrined in the 1965 Voting Rights Act that were impacted by recent Supreme Court rulings, such as its 2013 decision in the case Shelby County v. Holder.
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