Accessing the Right to Vote Among System-Impacted People

• In Event: Public Policy and Collateral Consequences

Abstract

Recent efforts to dismantle disenfranchisement regimes have the potential to substantially expand electoral eligibility among people with criminal records; however, even among those with criminal legal histories who are eligible to vote, voting rates are often abysmally low. We suggest that diverse and dynamic state laws, combined with the threat of re-arrest for voting while ineligible, produce a complex and punitive landscape influencing voting access. Based on the analysis of interview, focus group, and text messaging conversations among a sample of system-impacted people in five states around the November 2022 election, we find that administrative burdens to accessing the right to vote are viewed as constructed (products of decision making by powerful government actors), consequential (resulting in misinformation about voting rights), and distributive (differentially salient by socioeconomic status and race). In response, community organizations can serve as credible messengers to mitigate these costs, providing information, accessibility, and encouragement to system-impacted constituents. These findings suggest that legislative reforms repealing disenfranchisement laws must be accompanied by on-the-ground efforts to address administrative burdens to broaden access to the ballot box.

Authors

• Naomi Sugie, University of California, Irvine

• Juan R. Sandoval, University of California, Irvine

• Daniela Kaiser Olhagaray, University of California, Irvine

• Delaney Mosca, University of California, Irvine

• Kyle Winnen, University of California, Irvine

• Emily Zhang, University of California, Berkeley

• Iris Zhang, Stanford University