Felons can vote immediately after release from custody under law signed by Gov. Inslee
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill into law Wednesday that is expected to restore voting rights for more than 20,000 residents who have finished serving sentences of total confinement for felony convictions.
The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2022, automatically restores that fundamental right as soon as people who’ve been convicted of felonies are not spending 24 hours a day in a corrections facility.
Under the new law, a person will be able to vote if they’re on community supervision — part of a sentence served out in the community under conditions — or on work release. A person’s right to vote also can no longer be revoked for failing to make court-ordered legal financial obligations, such as restitution or fees.
“While other states are restricting the right to vote, I’m glad that Washington, here, we’re expanding our access to democracy,” Inslee said before signing the bill into law.
When a person is convicted of a felony in Washington, they lose their right to vote. Today, they can have that right provisionally restored if they’re not serving a sentence of confinement with the Department of Corrections, aren’t on community supervision, and aren’t incarcerated for a felony conviction in a federal or out-of-state court, as McClatchy has previously reported.
Their provisional right can be revoked if a sentencing court finds they’ve “willfully failed to pay” legal financial obligations, and their permanent right can be restored in one of several ways, including a certificate of discharge from the sentencing court or a court order restoring the right.
Washington will now join many other states in restoring the right to vote upon release from prison.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, Washington will be the 20th state to do so. A slightly lower count from the National Conference of State Legislatures tallies 18 states where the right to vote is lost only while a person is incarcerated — in two states and Washington, D.C., people convicted of felonies never lose the right.
The bill was sponsored by Democratic Rep. Tarra Simmons of Bremerton, who is believed to be the first person convicted of a felony ever elected to the Washington state Legislature. It was cosponsored by Republican Rep. Jesse Young of Gig Harbor.
“This is Rep. Simmons first bill, and as a person who has rebuilt her life following her incarceration, she has so successfully and effectively used her lived experience to the benefit of others and to our community,” Inslee said.
A coalition has been working on the effort for years, Simmons has said. Sen. Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, and Rep. Laurie Dolan, D-Olympia, have proposed similar legislation.
Restoring the right will allow people to immediately engage in the community, supporters say, as they face the many obstacles to resuming their daily lives. This particular obstacle cannot be justified by pointing to a public-safety risk, Simmons and others have said.
“Allowing people with past criminal convictions to vote is pivotal in welcoming them as full members of their communities,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, deputy director of the Voting Rights and Elections Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, in a prepared statement after the bill’s passage. “When individuals feel included in society, they have more success in building lives for themselves and their families.”
Elections officials also testified that the measure will streamline a complex system, and the effort has been framed as a racial-justice issue: Disenfranchisement of people with felony records disproportionately impacts some communities of color, said Sahar Fathi with the state Attorney General’s Office in public testimony earlier this session.
Data from the Department of Corrections show 12.1 percent of people on active supervision are Black, while that population makes up an estimated 4.4 percent of the state’s population; 4.3 percent on supervision are American Indian/Alaska Native, while that demographic accounts for an estimated 1.9 percent of the broader population.
This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 3:48 PM.
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