On the season three opener of Justice Above All, host and Thurgood Marshall Institute Senior Researcher, Dr. Sandhya Kajeepeta explores the state of felony disenfranchisement. Across the country, previously incarcerated individuals are forced to navigate complex, bureaucratic processes in order to exercise their constitutional right to vote. In the past few years, we’ve seen increased criminalization of voting through new laws and the creation of election policing units, all under the guise of rooting out voter fraud. However, voter fraud is almost nonexistent—less than 1% of voters are suspected of committing voter fraud. These new tactics will likely disproportionately impact formerly incarcerated people. As a result, felony disenfranchisement laws, which are modern reincarnations of racist Jim Crow-era policies, pose an even greater threat to people’s individual freedom and our democracy.
Pamela Moses, Activist and Musician
Blair Bowie, Director, Restore Your Vote, Campaign Legal Center
Christina Das, Voting Rights Attorney, Legal Defense Fund
In 2019, Pamela Moses, a Black woman and Tennessee resident, tried to register to vote after a probation officer informed her that her probation term had ended. This information turned out to be incorrect, and Ms. Moses was actually permanently barred from voting in Tennessee. Ms. Moses didn’t realize she had lost her voting rights after her prior conviction, so in the summer of 2019 when she received notice that her voting registration was going to be cancelled, she called the elections commission to ask what she should do to ensure she made it back on the voter rolls. As directed, she started the restoration process and asked a probation officer to sign the required forms. After looking up her case, the probation officer incorrectly concluded that her probation term had ended and signed a certificate saying so. Ms. Moses was prosecuted and sentenced to a prison term of six years and one day over her probation officer’s innocuousreading of the probation computing system and misunderstanding of her court case which result in his signing her voter restoration forms. Ms. Moses bravely fought the charges, and her voting fraud conviction was eventually overturned. But she had to deal with years of turmoil and incarceration, away from her family, simply because of an error. She also contracted COVID while she was being held in jail, and almost lost her life.
Campaign Legal Center’s Restore Your Vote Tool helps people with prior convictions navigate the electoral and voter restoration process.
In partnership with the Prisoners Legal Advocacy Network (PLAN), the Thurgood Marshall Insititure has prepared toolkits for both election and prison administrators and advocates to assist with advocating for and building out poll sites in local jails.
LDF’s Voting Rights Microsite helps voters in priority southern states stay informed on key election dates and learn more about voting rights across the country.
Another case discussed in the episode is Crystal Mason’s, a Texas woman who received an illegal voting conviction due to a voting error. In 2016, she wanted to do her civic duty and she completed a provisional ballot in the 2016 General Election. She didn’t realize, and was never told, that because she was on supervised release she was ineligible to vote. A simple voting error landed her with a 5-year criminal sentence.
On March 29, 2024 (after this podcast episode was recorded), a state appellate court in Texas overturned Crystal Mason’s conviction for alleged illegal voting that would have resulted in a five-year prison sentence. The judge ruled that the state of Texas did not have sufficient evidence that Crystal Mason knew she was ineligible to vote when she cast a provisional ballot in 2016. This is a long-overdue victory for Ms. Mason, who spent years bravely fighting these unfair charges. Listen to the episode to learn more about Ms. Mason’s case.
During the 1978 county elections in Pickens County, AL, two Black women activists, Maggie Bozeman and Julia Wilder, were working to realize the promise of the Voting Rights Act in their community and help their neighbors exercise their right to vote. Bozeman and Wilder helped more than three dozen elderly Black people complete and submit absentee ballots. These two voting rights activists were later charged and convicted of alleged “voter fraud” by all-white juries. Bozeman was sentenced to prison for four years and Wilder was sentenced to prison for five years (the maximum penalty). LDF represented Bozeman and Wilder, and successfully overturned their illegal and politically-motivated convictions.
In 2023, Florida legislators passed a state budget that included $1.4 million for the Office of Election Crimes and Security (first established in 2022). This was a 21% increase in funds allocated for the office compared to the previous year’s budget. Meanwhile, the amount of funds allocated for election administration in Florida declined by 42% from $23 million in 2022 to $13 million in 2023. Governor Ron DeSantis is now requesting $2.2 million for the election policing unit in the 2024-25 budget.
