Former President Trump’s conviction in Manhattan Criminal Court last month has many people asking: Can Trump even vote in the upcoming election given his felony status?
We should take this opportunity to think more broadly. It’s time to remove barriers to democracy and restore voting rights for all Americans with past felony convictions.
Nearly every major media outlet has attempted to address the public’s confusion with insights from leading experts. The confusion over Trump’s voting rights reflects a bigger problem in American democracy: Millions of Americans with past felony convictions don’t know if they can vote.
Set aside how you feel about Trump’s conviction. The fact that consulting with legal experts is necessary to determine if someone can vote should be alarming.
The problem stems from the patchwork of varying state laws that create confusing, and sometimes contradictory, directives for returning citizens. For example, consider the laws in two battleground states, Arizona and Georgia. In both, returning citizens must complete any prison, probation and parole sentences to qualify to vote.
But, that’s where the similarities end.
In Arizona, individuals with a single felony conviction must pay all victim restitution. Other forms of restitution, such as those converted into civil debt, might not impact voting rights. But that’s only been the law since 2019; before then, Arizona law also required offenders to pay back criminal fines. For those with more than one conviction, the rights restoration process involves an arcane application to the court system.
The possibility of expungement — clearing past crimes from one’s record — complicates matters further. Arizona offers non-discretionary expungement for those convicted of marijuana possession-related offenses. But residents must first ensure they qualify and then undergo that process. That takes significant time and money. If an individual has multiple convictions, several of which are expungable, then they have to determine which path to take.
In Georgia, where Trump faces separate criminal litigation, a returning citizen must settle certain fines to complete their sentence. Which fines are those? Well, those that extend the duration of probation and parole. To distinguish disqualifying fines from non-disqualifying ones, one must get familiar with the Georgia Code, which state officials might not even understand.
And if you’re perplexed reading that, imagine how Americans with past felony convictions feel. Mistakes are costly. Registering to vote under the incorrect belief that one is eligible could result in fresh felony charges. That’s a reality for voters in Florida and elsewhere.
No wonder trust in democratic institutions is waning.
Of course, some will argue returning citizens won’t cast ballots if given the chance. But that argument faces a few problems.
For one, it’s simply not true. Understandably, returning citizens do not participate in elections at the same rate as other citizens. Who would if a mistake results in a huge fine or time behind bars? Still, empirical research shows that clarifying eligibility can boost turnout significantly among those with past convictions.
More fundamentally, the right to vote is more than just the act of voting itself. Many returning citizens care deeply about being able to cast a ballot. For them, redemption is not realized until they regain this right.
None of this might matter for Trump. After all, he has friends in high places. One of our former law school classmates and current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has stated that Trump will easily qualify for restoration of voting rights.
And while that’s great news for Trump, it’s small comfort for the million-plus returning citizens in Florida still disenfranchised. No, that’s not a typo; 10 percent of the voting-age population in Trump’s home state will be unable to vote come November because complex laws make their voting status too confusing.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. A simple approach – one adopted by Maine and Vermont — would remove all barriers to voting altogether. Other states have decided that disenfranchisement applies only during incarceration. That’s the law in New York that will likely enable Trump to vote in Florida in a few months.
For progressives and conservatives alike, Trump serves as the perfect example of why felony disenfranchisement should be left behind.
Neel U. Sukhatme is a professor of law, associate dean at Georgetown Law and cofounder of Free Our Vote. Alexander Billy is the co-founder of Free Our Vote.