An estimated 450,000 people in Georgia with past convictions are eligible to cast ballots. As get-out-the-vote efforts ramp up across the swing state, advocates have a hard time reaching those who are formerly incarcerated, in part because many of them don’t know they can vote, The Associated Press reports. “Nobody comes back and informs you that your voting rights are restored,” said Pamela Winn, an Atlanta organizer who was formerly incarcerated. “You don’t receive a letter. There’s no kind of notification. So most people, once they get a felony, in their mind all their rights are gone.” According to a report released Thursday by The Sentencing Project, which advocates for reducing imprisonment, almost 250,000 people in Georgia cannot vote because of a felony conviction, out of 4 million nationwide.
The national rate has fallen in recent years as some states expanded voting rights for people with past convictions, but Georgia has not followed suit. Most cannot vote until they have completed their prison sentences and are off probation or parole. Fourteen other states have similar restrictions and 10 are even stricter, but Georgia has the eighth highest rate of people who cannot vote due to past convictions, something observers attribute in part to the state’s unusually long prison and probation sentences. Of the quarter-million Georgians who cannot vote because of criminal convictions, about 190,000 are ineligible because they are on probation or parole, according to The Sentencing Project. That is the case even though the state passed legislation in 2021 creating a pathway for people to terminate their probation early. The Sentencing Project also estimates that over half of the people who can’t vote due to past convictions in Georgia are Black. But even for those who can, getting them to vote is an ongoing battle. “Because people are marginalized and because they have criminal background, they are led to believe that their vote doesn’t count,” Winn said.
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