Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law last week mandating that election officials bring voting services to county detention centers and jails for statewide general elections.
The statewide program is the first of its kind, as only a handful of prisons around the country offer in-person voting to eligible residents.
Implementing the measure, which Polis signed Friday, means about 61 jails and detention centers across Colorado will offer in-person voting for the November election, according to Jack Todd, a spokesman for the Colorado secretary of state.
While Colorado bars those serving time for felony convictions from voting, it is legal for incarcerated people awaiting trial or serving time for misdemeanors to cast ballots in the state.
State Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Democrat who sponsored the bill, said lawmakers found that those eligible voters weren't commonly voting because of logistical hurdles behind bars.
“In Colorado, we really pride ourselves on our gold star election system,” Gonzales said. “Yet we realized that there was a group of individuals who weren’t able to fully access the ballot.”
The law requires law enforcement and election officials to offer six hours of in-person voting and services that make it possible for confined people to register to vote. There will also be a way for eligible voters to return mail ballots should they prefer to cast their ballots that way.
County staff members will serve as poll workers, and the legislation also ensures that election officials have access to Corrections Department data to ensure that those serving time for felony convictions can't cast ballots.
Restoring voting rights to the millions of Americans with felony convictions who have completed their sentences has been a popular policy proposal in recent years, but very few states have taken steps to encourage political engagement behind bars.
Voting from behind bars can be difficult, voting rights advocates have long said, though many Americans are eligible.
Federal data indicates that nearly a half million people were behind bars and awaiting trial as of mid-2022, the most recent data available. Those who are citizens and don’t have disenfranchising felony convictions on their records maintain their rights, as do many of those those serving time for misdemeanor crimes.
“One of the things that we heard from people who had previously been incarcerated was that being able to weigh in on these elections was so important for them to remember that even though they are navigating the criminal legal system, that they still are a member of a community, a citizen of Colorado, and that they still had rights and obligations,” Gonzales said.
