Sheriff’s office aids with requests
By Adam Foxman
Ventura County Star
VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. — Among the many demographic groups in play this election season, there is one that politicians aren’t courting: jail inmates.
Under California law, the only citizens disenfranchised because of their rap sheets are those currently serving state prison terms or parole for felony convictions, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Others can register and cast ballots if they are in jail awaiting trial. A convicted felon who has served out his prison term and parole can vote, even if he ends up back in county jail.
Historically, the issue of inmate voting rights has largely flown under the public radar, but it hasn’t escaped the attention of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.
Long-standing Sheriff’s Department programs allow inmates at local jails to request voter documents and help them cast ballots while in custody.
The little orange rule book inmates receive when booked into jail informs them they can request voter registration forms and absentee ballots, said Susan Llewellyn, inmate services program manager at the Ventura County Jail.
When registered voters are booked into jail after the deadline to apply for absentee ballots, they can sign waivers authorizing jail staff members to pick up their ballots, and staff members will hand-carry the ballots to and from the elections office, officials said.
“We do a lot of footwork for them,” Llewellyn said.
The Ventura County Jail’s efforts to facilitate inmate voting recently earned the Sheriff’s Department kudos from the county Public Defender’s Office.
Chief Deputy Public Defender Michael McMahon recently contacted sheriff’s officials to discuss inmate voting procedures after the Public Defender’s Office received a letter about inmate suffrage from the prisoner rights group All of Us or None. McMahon is now convinced Ventura County inmates who want to vote have that opportunity, he said.
“What we like is that the sheriff is giving people access,” said Assistant Public Defender Steve Lipson.
Nationally, it’s uncommon for jail administrators to help inmates vote, said Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based criminal justice think tank that advocates for alternatives to incarceration.
“It’s really just a relative handful of jails around the country where any kind of effort is being made to help them become registered,” Mauer said.
“There are about 700,000 people nationally who are in jail, but the vast majority don’t know they can vote,” he said.
The number of Ventura County inmates requesting voter forms this election season is about three times greater than normal, but they still represent only a tiny fraction of all the people in custody.
As of this week, the jail staff had received about 35 requests for voter documents, said Michael Akseven, who works in the sheriff’s inmate services department. In most presidential elections, about a dozen request the documents, and jail staff members end up carrying ballots for most of those, Akseven said.
Sheriff’s officials don’t track the number of inmates voting by absentee ballot with help from family or friends, or the total number of inmates who are eligible to vote.
When it was adopted in 1849, California’s first Constitution permanently disenfranchised anyone “convicted of an infamous crime.” A 1974 proposition amended the Constitution to allow ex-felons to regain their voting rights after completing state prison and parole sentences.
The issue of inmate voting gained traction with activist groups and human rights organizations partly because of the disproportionate number of minorities incarcerated, said Professor Gregory Freeland, chairman of the political science department at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. Those groups argued that voting rights are part of rehabilitation.
The increasing use of absentee voting has made it easier for inmates to cast ballots, but most people are still unaware of laws that allow former felons to vote, said Kareem Crayton, an associate professor of law and political science at USC Gould School of Law. “It surprises even people who are former felons.” \
Copyright 2008 Ventura County Star