ABSTRACT
This chapter considers a rare and potentially significant counter-example to the universalization of the franchise in democratic societies: restrictions on the voting rights of felons and ex-felons in the United States. It suggests that determining whether felon disfranchisement has had an impact on American democracy requires examining the extent to which it directly alters actual electoral outcomes. The chapter examines state statutes and secondary sources documenting the voting rights of offenders to determine which correctional populations to count among the disfranchised population. It develops alternative estimates based on exits from correctional supervision. The chapter establishes the median age of released prisoners using annual data from the National Corrections Reporting Program. It asks whether felon disfranchisement constitutes a meaningful reversal of the extension of voting rights by considering its political impact. The chapter utilizes information on felon characteristics from censuses and surveys of prison inmates to estimate the size and social distribution of the felon population.
