Voting Rights Restored for Former Prisoners in Midterm Election

Florida welcomes back its 1.5m ‘returning citizens’   after ex-felons regain voting rights

Amendment 4 passed with strong bipartisan support by a large margin in a state notorious for razor-close elections Valencia Gunder has found no shortage of ways to leave her mark on her local community in and around low-income neighborhoods of Miami, Florida.

Florida Welcomes back its 1.5m ‘returning citizens’

In Virginia, Ex-Felons Voted For The First Time After Regaining Their Rights

“I now felt like a citizen. I now felt like I will make a difference in some kind of way,” said LaVaughn Williams, who voted for the first time on Tuesday.

In 2016, there were 508,680 potential voters in Virginia disenfranchised because of felonies, including more than one in every five African Americans, according to The Sentencing Project. The state’s disenfranchisement of felons extends back to the 1830s and was included in the state’s 1902 constitution as part of a set of voting restrictions intended to keep African Americans from voting.

Felony disenfranchisement policies vary by state, but Virginia is among four of the most severe that disenfranchise people for life.”

In Virginia, ExFelons Voted for the First Time