Pennsylvania updates guidance for incarcerated voters

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Ahead of November’s general election, Pennsylvania released updated guidance for incarcerated individuals wishing to cast a vote.

As election season heats up, all eyes are directed at Pennsylvania as the key swing state with 19 electoral college votes. Pushes to increase voter registration within the Philadelphia metro region have also ramped up within the past month in the city and its suburbs.

Late last month, the Pennsylvania Department of State issued guidance for incarcerated individuals interested in casting a ballot this season. Barring a felony conviction, people currently incarcerated in the state can register and vote if they’re:

• Incarcerated on a misdemeanor conviction
• Incarcerated while awaiting a trial on misdemeanor or felony charges
• Incarcerated but will be released before the election
• On probation
• Released on parole
• Under house arrest

According to the Prison Policy Initiative, roughly 73,000 Pennsylvanians are behind bars, with the majority — 37,000 — in state prisons. Tom Innes, director of prison policy and advocacy for the Defender Association of Philadelphia, said there are thousands of eligible voters within the state prison system.

“That’s because people are sent back to state prisons to do back time,” Innes said. “There are people who are sent to state prisons to do sentences for misdemeanors, and people who are doing a sentence for a misdemeanor can still vote.”

As of September, a little more than 4,700 people were incarcerated within the Philadelphia County prison system.

Innes said “way more than half” of those people are eligible to vote.

“You put all that together… that’s a lot of folks,” Innes said. “And we know from the last two elections how close the ballot totals were and which way it went, so we want to make sure that these folks are counted, if possible.”

Some obstacles incarcerated voters could face don’t just come from their current legal status, but from the place they’re held and the outside world’s influence.

Philadelphia Justice Project founder and Villanova University professor Jill McCorkel said misinformation tends to spread to inmates about voting, considering how laws differ from state to state.

“People are sort of blasting information from other states to Pennsylvania saying if you’ve ever been convicted of a felony, you’re not allowed to vote, and that’s simply not true,” McCorkel said. “In Pennsylvania, if you are released from custody on a felony conviction, you can still vote. So even if you’re on parole, you’re paroled to a halfway house, you’re still eligible.”

Another roadblock could be issues and differences with inmate mailing systems, which make it difficult for inmates to get access to ballots.

“In a lot of jurisdictions, the mail has to go to another off-site processing center,” Innes said. “For example, in Pennsylvania, the off-site processing center is in Florida. When it goes to Florida, then they don’t get a copy of the letter, say from Mom or Dad, they get a Xerox copy of the letter. That doesn’t work with respect to election forms and registration of voting forms, so all that has to be worked out between the local election board and the jails.”

McCorkel said providing incarcerated inmates access to voting has positive impacts on their lives once they’re outside of the prison — something she says she witnessed firsthand while teaching classes at Villanova’s program at SCI Phoenix.

“One of the first things they did was to make sure that they had their voter registration lined up, and I can say, even today, a number of those guys are working very hard to make sure that people who are justice-impacted know what their rights are when it comes to voting,” McCorkel said.

Innes said maintaining inmate voting allows them to stay connected to their communities when they return home after their sentences.

“Allowing them to register and to vote fosters a sense of pride and reminds them that they remain part of the community, helping them maintain their identity and engagement in civic life,” Innes said. “That’s important because 90%, if not more, of the folks in jail are going to come back to their neighborhoods, to their community, to Philadelphia.”

People incarcerated for a felony conviction or those who have violated a provision of the Pennsylvania Election Code within the past four years are ineligible to register to vote or cast an absentee or mail-in ballot.

In the U.S., roughly four million Americans have lost the right to vote due to felony convictions, according to data from The Sentencing Project.

The last day to register to vote in Pennsylvania is Oct. 21. Applications for mail-in or absentee ballots must be received by county election offices by Oct. 29.