By Andrew Blankstein
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The audience, admittedly, was captive. But in a year of record turnouts for the presidential primaries, perhaps no place saw a bigger uptick in voter registration than Los Angeles County jails.
At least 917 inmates registered to vote over the last month, said sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore. Of those, 881 filled out applications to vote by absentee ballot in the California primary.
The jailhouse registrations marked a sharp increase in voting levels for inmates.
For the congressional elections two years ago, Sheriff’s Department records show only 16 inmates were registered to vote. In 2004, the year of the last presidential contest, 121 inmates were registered after a get-out-the-vote effort by the American Civil Liberties Union.
“People have the legal right to vote if they [have not been convicted] and have no prior felony convictions,” Whitmore said. “We look at it as part of the process, part of the inmate services we provide.”
The most recent effort began a month ago when the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder sent representatives to train jail personnel how to register inmates and how to help them to vote. About 20,000 inmates, the majority awaiting trial on felony charges, are held at any given time.
After training, workers fanned out across the county’s seven jail facilities, including Men’s Central Jail, Twin Towers, Pitchess Detention Center and the women’s jail at Century Regional Detention Center. The Mira Loma Detention Center in the Antelope Valley, which houses federal inmates, was not canvassed.
“They went into the modules, they walked the rows and they made the announcement that if people wanted to vote and were legally able to do so, that they could do so by absentee ballot,” said Whitmore, who added that some of those who registered to vote absentee may have since been released.
A breakdown in registration by party affiliation was not available, he said.
Mary Tiedeman, jails project coordinator for the ACLU of Southern California, called it “important and symbolic” for inmates to have a voice. “They are forgotten. They live in disgusting, overcrowded conditions,” she said.
Unlike four years ago, however, she said her organization was not the driving force in inmate registrations this time around.
Los Angeles County jails are among others seeing a rise in inmate voters.
In San Francisco, 250 of 2,100 jail inmates registered to vote in California’s primary election this year.
Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Eileen Hirst said it was “a good number since many are not eligible and know that.”
“Whether we did a better job of letting prisoners know about the election or whether people are more excited about this particular election is difficult to say. But I was in the jails yesterday. I have been 20 years and I have never heard prisoners having more detailed and informed conversations about the election and their choices, particularly for President. It was very exciting,” Hirst said.
In L.A. County jails today, deputies will make one last effort to ask inmates if they have filled out a ballot but have neglected to put it in the mail. Whitmore, the sheriff’s spokesman, said deputies plan to take any un-mailed ballots to the registrar-recorder in Norwalk by 8 tonight.
No exit polls were available, he added.
Copyright 2007 The Los Angeles Times