May 2009
Free to Vote: Restoring Former Felons' Election Rights
by Jennifer Shaw
William Caper* is a former public works director and city administrator who serves as a volunteer consultant for the Mossyrock water district. In 1999, Caper attempted to register to vote after moving to Lewis County. When his voter registration didn't arrive in the mail, he went to the Superior Court. A court clerk informed him that he was ineligible to vote because of a felony conviction two years before. Caper then began the process of restoring his right to vote. Only after he sought help from an attorney did Caper discover that his voting rights had been restored in 1998 and that for eight years he had been erroneously denied the right to vote. (*Note: William Caper is not his real name — the names of individuals in this article have been changed to protect their privacy.)
William Caper's story is not unusual. The system by which the state of Washington restores the right to vote to people coming out of the criminal justice system is so confusing that even officials aren't sure who is eligible to vote.
Few rights are more cherished in this country than the freedom to vote. After all, voting underlies our ability to elect officials who can help protect all our other rights. Voting is not only a right bestowed upon us by the Constitution, but a civic responsibility as well.
Under Washington law, the right to vote is taken away from people who are convicted of felonies. When they've completed their sentences, the law entitles them to regain that right, but the process to do so is cumbersome and confusing. It differs based on when and where the people were sentenced. It practically requires them to hire an attorney to navigate the hurdles and hoops. As William Caper found out, it depends on courts and elections officials giving out accurate and consistent information.
Before such individuals can register to vote, the Department of Corrections, the sentencing court, and the county clerk typically all have to issue records that must be verified. In addition, people convicted of felonies are charged 12 percent interest on the legal financial obligations (LFOs) associated with their sentences, and they can't get their voting rights back until the LFOs are paid in full. Only when they have met all the conditions — financial and otherwise — are they given a certificate of discharge, which qualifies them to vote.
The part of the law requiring all LFOs to be paid before restoration of the right to vote hits people of modest means especially hard.
Before her conviction, Bette Woods, a mother and grandmother from Chattaroy, was a regular voter. She's a former park ranger and security officer, but since 2001, hasn't been able to work due to chronic pain and nerve damage from a spinal-cord injury she suffered after a car accident. Because she has to live on a very limited fixed monthly income, Woods can afford to make payments of only $10 per month toward her legal financial obligations. She still owes over $1,000 in fines, more than $700 of which is interest. At her rate of payment, Woods will be in her late sixties by the time she can vote again.
The result is that people with money get to vote, and people with low incomes often lose the right to vote for the rest of their lives.
Because of this system, more than 167,000 Washington citizens — disproportionately people of color and poor people — are disenfranchised. This is particularly unfortunate because taking part in the democratic process is important for people who have come out of the criminal justice system. A big part of rehabilitation is reconnecting people with their communities and discouraging them from re-offending. Research indicates that people who vote after being released are 50 percent less likely to be re-arrested than those who don't vote. So wouldn't a policy that makes it easier for people to vote make more sense than one that makes it more difficult?
The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington has learned of these difficulties firsthand: The ACLU-WA has been contacted by more than 600 people needing help to negotiate the labyrinthine system to regain their voting rights. With help, 170 have regained the franchise so far. These are typically Washington state citizens who have been released from prison, who have met all their obligations under their sentences, but who have not performed the administrative tasks necessary to reclaim their right to vote. In 2008, attorneys and paralegals from the Starbucks Coffee Company's Law and Corporate Affairs Department joined in that effort by volunteering their time and skills.
The quest to restore an individual's right to vote often resembles a detective case. People must be located, leads followed up, files acquired, and signatures gathered. The ACLU and Starbucks helped Candy Cutchins in such a quest.
Candy Cutchins is a mother of four from Des Moines who completed her sentence in 1995 and paid off all her fines in 2002. After her petition to King County Superior Court to restore her voting rights was denied, she contacted the ACLU-WA for help in October 2007.
The legal team looking into the case learned that an agency where Cutchins had received drug/alcohol treatment had gone out of business and many of the records destroyed. By contacting numerous officials at the Washington Department of Corrections, particularly those in its Public Disclosure Unit, the ACLU/Starbucks team were finally able to track down the appropriate documentation, some of it buried in obscure files and old e-mails. After almost a year of phone calls, faxes, e-mails, and other correspondence, the team succeeded: Cutchins received her certificate and order of discharge in October 2008, just in time to register to vote in the general election.
The cases of William Caper, Bette Woods, and Candy Cutchins illustrate what has become the norm — citizens who should be allowed to vote are denied because of an inefficient system, a system that penalizes poor people.
We need a law that automatically restores citizens' right to vote as they complete their sentences and their non-financial obligations. They would still have to pay off their debts, but their debts wouldn't determine their right to vote. The process would be streamlined, saving time and taxpayer money. Such a law has already been enacted in 13 other states, in the District of Columbia, and in virtually all other democratic countries.
Such a law should be passed in Washington before thousands more people are denied the right to vote in the next election.
William Caper reminds us of the importance of reforming our system for restoring voting rights. Having regained his vote, he says: "I am once again a full citizen of the United States with a voice that counts — at the ballot box. I will leave no greater influence on the future of the world than when I vote."
Jennifer Shaw is deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington. Prior to joining the ACLU staff in 2004, she spent eight years as a trial attorney with Aoki and Sakamoto in Seattle and before that worked for seven years as a public defender.
