Restore the Vote – and Reduce Age Disparities in Political Power

• In Event: Policy-Implications of DLC Research 2: The Life-Course Consequences of Criminal Justice Policy

Abstract

Although 10 US states have expanded voting rights for people with felony convictions since 2019, over 4 million remain disenfranchised. This disenfranchisement falls unequally across social groups, for example by diluting the voting strength of Black and Native American communities. This presentation shows that voting restrictions also fall unequally across the life course. Because young adults make up a large share of the felony probation population, we find that disenfranchisement of this group significantly dilutes the youth vote in the 25 states that still restrict voting for people on probation supervision. In Minnesota, for example, approximately 14% of adults on probation are aged 18-25, relative to about 8.7% of the general population. When the state restored the vote to all non-incarcerated Minnesotans in 2023, it thus reduced age disparities in access to the ballot and political power. Correspondingly, other state reforms that only affect people who had already served their sentences (e.g., Iowa) disproportionately reenfranchised those ages 25 and over. We conclude that abolition of voting restrictions will reduce age disparities in ballot access and, more generally, help to ensure that the US electorate is indeed representative of the nation as a whole.

Authors

• Christopher Uggen, University of Minnesota

• Ryan Larson, Hamline University

• MayMay Seymour, University of Minnesota