Illinois prisoners should have the right to vote, a powerful lobbying group is arguing to the Illinois General Assembly. The effort nearly progressed in late January 2022, when the measure failed in the Illinois House by three votes.
If made law, SB 828 would make Illinois the third state to allow incarcerated citizens to vote while they’re in prison – after Maine and Vermont, and the District of Columbia.
Current Illinois voter law must be changed because it is racially unfair, the advocates say. Their proposed changes would add about 28,000 prisoners to Illinois’ voter rolls. Most importantly, nearly 55 percent, Illinois Department of Corrections’ records as of December 2021 show, are African-American:
Statewide population demographics would make Illinois the first state with a substantial percentage of black residents that allows felons the right to vote while they are serving their prison sentences.
It’s not a new movement. It’s just one that has been gaining steam in the past few years.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont wrote in a 2019 USA Today op ed that allowing prison voting would begin correcting America’s broken criminal justice system he deemed as “systemically racist,” which enables “mass incarceration” as a “tool of voter suppression.”
But how appropriate is it for criminals to maintain the right to vote while they are in prison?
“Nearly every state recognizes the wisdom of preventing prisoners from voting,” former Heritage Foundation legal analyst Jason Snead wrote in a 2019 Chicago Tribune opinion on the issue. “There is simply no reason that those who have shown they cannot follow the law ought to have a say in crafting it or electing those who will enforce it.”
Snead wrote that felons show through their actions that they do not deserve society’s implicit trust.
“They do deserve a second chance, but the burden is theirs to demonstrate that they have become law-abiding and upstanding citizens in other words, the very people we want to be voting,” he said.
Illinois’ Department of Corrections records indicate the top ten crimes current state prisoners have committed range from homicide to robbery:
How comfortable should Illinoisans be to welcome imprisoned murderers, rapists, violent attackers, thieves and drug violators as making the crucial votes to determine who serves in the Executive Branch, in the Illinois General Assembly and on the state’s judicial benches?
Currently, Illinois is one of 21 states that returns voting rights to prisoners once they’ve completed their sentences. That is a liberal stand compared to sixteen states that restore voting rights only after prison, parole and probation are completed and another nine states that permanently deny voting rights to convicted felons.
Illinois, a state politically-controlled in all three branches by Bernie Sanders’ sympathizers, is the perfect place to stoke the voting rights’ fire, Chicago Votes representatives said in a recent WBEZ radio interview.
Lawmakers in general are interested in voting rights’ restoration, the representatives said. They are much more open to the movement in Illinois than other states.
It matters who casts votes in Illinois. The state’s election rolls are in dire need of being scoured of former residents and deceased voters. Adding criminals still serving their time would not make Illinois a better place for law-abiding citizens to live and raise their families.
Share your thoughts with your state lawmakers as they most certainly will face another vote on SB 828 during the ongoing legislative session.
Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to your State Senator and State Representative to ask them to vote NO to SB 828. The majority of voters in Illinois do not want violent prisoners casting ballots for candidates who are running for the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government.
If you don’t get involved on this issue, your voice and vote could be muffled by an imprisoned murderer.
