Former President Trump’s conviction in Manhattan Criminal Court last month has many asking the question: Will Trump be able to vote in the next election, despite having committed a felony?
We should seize this opportunity to think bigger: It’s time to remove barriers to democracy and restore the voting rights of all Americans with past felony convictions.
Nearly every major media outlet has attempted to address the public’s confusion by citing leading experts. Trump’s confusion over voting rights reflects a larger problem in American democracy: Millions of Americans who have been convicted of felonies don’t know if they can vote.
Regardless of how you feel about convicting Trump, the fact that people have to consult legal experts to determine whether they can vote is disturbing.
The problem stems from a patchwork of state laws that create confusing and sometimes conflicting instructions for returnees. Take, for example, the laws in two battleground states, Arizona and Georgia, which both require returnees to complete prison, probation or parole sentences before they are eligible to vote.
But that’s where the similarities end.
In Arizona, anyone convicted of even one felony must pay full victim restitution. Other forms of restitution, such as restitution that is converted into a civil debt, may not affect voting rights. However, this is the law since 2019; before that, Arizona law required offenders to also repay criminal fines. For people with multiple convictions, the process of restoring rights requires a complex court application.
The possibility of expungement, or the ability to erase past criminal records, further complicates things. Arizona offers non-discretionary expungement to people convicted of marijuana possession-related offenses. But residents must first verify that they qualify and then go through the process, which can be time-consuming and expensive. If you have multiple convictions, some of which are eligible for expungement, you must decide which path to take.
In Georgia, where Trump faces another criminal case, released citizens must pay certain fines to complete their sentences. What fines? Fines that extend probation and parole terms. To distinguish between disqualifying and non-disqualifying fines requires a deep understanding of Georgia law that even state officials may not understand.
If you’re confused by this, imagine how it feels for Americans who have been convicted of a felony in the past. Mistakes are costly. Registering to vote under the mistaken belief that you are eligible could result in a new felony charge. This is the reality for voters in Florida and elsewhere.
It is no wonder that trust in democratic institutions is fading.
Of course, one could argue that citizens who are returned to the polls would not vote if they had the chance, but there are several problems with that argument.
First, that’s simply not true. Naturally, re-elected citizens don’t participate in elections at the same rate as other citizens. Who would participate if a mistake could result in huge fines or even jail time? Yet empirical studies show that clarifying the qualifications can significantly increase voter turnout among people with formerly convicted crimes.
More fundamentally, the right to vote is more than just the act of voting. Many reinstated citizens place great importance on being able to vote. For them, relief will not be realized until they have this right restored.
None of this may mean anything to Trump. After all, he has friends in high places. Our former law school classmate, current Florida governor Ron DeSantis (R), has said Trump would easily qualify for voting rights restoration.
While this is great news for Trump, it’s little consolation to the more than 1 million Florida homeless who remain disenfranchised. No, that’s not a typo. In Trump’s home state, complex laws that obscure voting eligibility mean that 10% of the voting-age population will be unable to vote in November.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. A simple approach taken by Maine and Vermont is to remove all barriers to voting. Other states have decided that disenfranchisement only applies while incarcerated. That’s the law in New York, and it’s likely that Trump will be able to vote in Florida in the coming months.
For progressives and conservatives alike, Trump serves as a perfect example of why felony disenfranchisement should be eliminated.
Neil U. Sukhatme is professor of law and associate dean at Georgetown University Law School and co-founder of Free Our Vote. Alexander Billy is co-founder of Free Our Vote.
