State Bar of Wisconsin

Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section fights felon disenfranchisement

By Adam Korbitz, Government Relations Coordinator, State Bar of Wisconsin

Oct. 14, 2009 – The State Bar of Wisconsin’s Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section is supporting legislation to restore voting rights to certain felons who are not incarcerated but are still on probation, parole or extended supervision.

The bill, Senate Bill 240, received a public hearing on Oct. 13 before the Senate Committee on Labor, Elections and Urban Affairs, which is chaired by Senator Spencer Coggs.

Under current law in Wisconsin, any person convicted of a felony who has not completed the terms of their sentence – including probation, parole or extended supervision – is prohibited from voting in any election, even if not currently incarcerated. The right to vote is restored only upon completion of the entire sentence, including community release. Under SB 240, however, felons who are not currently incarcerated would be permitted to vote, even if they are still on a form of community release such as probation, parole or extended supervision.

“The Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section of the State Bar of Wisconsin actively supports this legislation because an individual’s right to vote should not be abridged merely because of the person’s status as an un-incarcerated felon,” said attorney A. Steven Porter, a civil rights attorney and member of the IRR section board, after the hearing. “Allowing felons who are on probation, parole or extended supervision to vote will create an additional incentive for them not to reoffend, thereby aiding in their rehabilitation.”

“Voting is the fundamental right of our democracy,” Porter added. “Laws that disenfranchise felons who are not currently incarcerated have a severe and disparate impact on racial minorities, which only undermines our democracy.”

The Assembly version of the legislation, Assembly Bill 353, received a public hearing in August and was approved by the Assembly Committee on Corrections and the Courts in September.

According to SB 240’s authors, Senator Lena Taylor and Representative Tamara Grigsby, the bill – referred to as the Wisconsin Democracy Restoration Act – would restore voting rights to “42,000 taxpaying Wisconsin citizens who have been deemed safe to return to society by our system of reintegration and live throughout the state of Wisconsin.”

“Like many of us, probationers and parolees live in their community, work, pay taxes, go to school and raise their families as they reintegrate into society, and yet, they may not be able to vote under Wisconsin’s current laws,” Taylor and Grigsby told their legislative colleagues earlier this year when they proposed the legislation. “Restricting voting rights does not prevent crime, nor does it provide compensation to victims. In fact recent research finds a link between allowing ex-offenders to fully participate in society by voting and reoffense; people who voted after release from supervision were half as likely to be re-arrested as those who did not vote. The act of voting demonstrates an individual’s commitment to the institutions of American democracy and society and should be encouraged.”

According to Taylor and Grigsby, 18 states have liberalized their felon disfranchisement laws since 1997, including neighboring states such as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio.

“These states have found that the simple act of voting makes ex-offenders feel more connected to their communities and is an important step toward their rehabilitation,” Taylor and Grigsby told their colleagues.

Each state determines for itself whether or not felons – incarcerated or not – can vote. Only Maine and Vermont allow incarcerated inmates to vote, while the other 48 states bar inmates from casting a ballot. Ten states permanently ban citizens with certain types of felony convictions from ever voting again, and two states permanently ban from voting anyone who has ever had a felony conviction.

According to the ACLU of Wisconsin, 39 percent of disenfranchised voters in Wisconsin are African-American, but African-Americans comprise only five percent of Wisconsin’s voting-age population. While one in nine African-American voters in Wisconsin has lost the right to vote due to a felony conviction, only one in 50 other voters are so disenfranchised.  Wisconsin has the 11^th highest rate in the nation of disenfranchised African-Americans.

Besides the State Bar’s IRR section, other organizations supporting SB 240 and AB 353 include the ACLU of Wisconsin, the League of Women Voters, the Wisconsin chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and the Wisconsin Council on Community Corrections.

The Wisconsin effort mirrors a federal effort in Congress to restore voting rights in elections for federal office to approximately four million Americans who are out of prison and living in the community but cannot vote because of past criminal convictions.

“The expansion of voting rights to the poor, women, minorities and young people is one of the greatest stories in our country’s history. We should continue this legacy by expanding the right to vote to those who have fully paid their debt to society,” U.S. Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin said in July when he announced the introduction of the Democracy Restoration Act of 2009.

The State Bar of Wisconsin establishes and maintains sections for carrying on the work of the association, each within its proper field of study defined in its bylaws. Each section consists of members who voluntarily enroll in the section because of a special interest in the particular field of law to which the section is dedicated. Section positions are taken on behalf of the section only.

The views expressed on this issue have not been approved by the Board of Governors of the State Bar of Wisconsin and are not the views of the State Bar as a whole. These views are those of the Section alone. If you have questions about this memorandum, please contact Adam Korbitz, Government Relations Coordinator, at akorbitz@wisbar.org or (608) 250-6140.   

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