A bill making its way through the 黑料吃瓜网 General Assembly would streamline the process of voting for those behind bars who haven鈥檛 lost their right to vote.
In 黑料吃瓜网, only those who are currently confined to a sentence of imprisonment lose their voting rights. Those convicted of certain election-related felonies lose the right to vote until the discharge of their probation or parole.
has advanced out of the Government Administration and Elections Committee. It would allow for the distribution of absentee ballot applications in detention facility common areas.
Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas, 黑料吃瓜网鈥檚 top elections official, supports the bill, calling it a first step needed to break down barriers to voting for the incarcerated.
鈥淧re-trial detainees make up almost 40% of our entire prison population here in 黑料吃瓜网,鈥� Thomas said. 鈥淎s of February, it was 4,200 individuals.鈥�
鈥淭hese people have not [legally] lost their right to vote, but because of logistical barriers, they have in fact lost their right to vote,鈥� Thomas said. 鈥淎nd I don鈥檛 know anyone who believes that someone鈥檚 ability to vote should depend on how much money they have. That is not the democracy that I signed up for.鈥�
Avery Gilbert, director of the Civil Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School, said it鈥檚 important for those behind bars to feel connected to the community as part of the electorate.
鈥淭he concept of corrections is that everybody can be returned to the fold of civil society,鈥� Gilbert said. 鈥淎nd if we believe in that, then we have to be able to give some avenue to participate, to make sure that people don鈥檛 feel disempowered and locked out of the process.鈥�
State Rep. Matt Blumenthal, a Stamford Democrat who serves as co-chair of the Government Administration and Elections Committee, said voting rights should be sacrosanct.
鈥淚t's the right on which all other rights depend,鈥� Blumenthal said. 鈥淎nd if we have thousands of people who have that right and are not able to exercise it because of things and processes that we do as a state, that is a crime, and it's one that we have to fix.鈥�
