Washington panel eyes increasing jail-based voter participation

(The Center Square) — Although a proposal allowing convicted felons to vote from jail while serving a sentence failed to gain traction, there may be renewed efforts to expand jail-based voter participation among those who have still retained their voting rights.

Under Washington state law, a person otherwise qualified to register to vote can have their voting rights taken away due to a court order, serving a sentence of total confinement in prison for a state felony conviction, or being incarcerated for a federal or out-of-state felony conviction. 

House Bill 2030 sponsored by Rep. Tarra Simmons, D-Bremerton, would have restored the right to vote for felons in prison, save for those convicted of a crime punishable by death; Washington state no longer has the death penalty after the Legislature passed Senate Bill 5087 in 2023. HB 2030 received a public hearing in the House Committee on State Government & Tribal Relations, but did not advance.

The right to vote was previously denied to convicted felons until 2021, when the Legislature enacted House Bill 1078, which as of 2022 restores the right to vote for convicted individuals immediately upon their release from jail.

It’s a proposal that Anthony Blankenship told the State Reentry Council at its July 12 meeting “really opened up the opportunity for people to vote in jail. It's a pretty clear delineation now of who can (vote).”

Blankenship is the senior community organizer in the policy and advocacy department for Civil Survival, a group founded in 2015 that backed HB 2030. According to its website, “criminal disenfranchisement does nothing to increase public safety, further dehumanizes incarcerated people, and has its American roots traced back to the 19th century Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. We hope that Washington State can become the first state to pass legislation ending criminal disenfranchisement.”

Blankenship is also involved with Free The Vote Washington, which also advocates for universal jail-based voting by arguing that “every citizen should have the freedom to vote. Voting is a fundamental right. People in prison are our community members, citizens, and human beings. They are counted in the census, participate in work and education, and are subject to systems that they have no say in — they should have an equal voice like any other citizen.”

Another bill related to jail-based voting considered in 2023 was House Bill 1174, also sponsored by Simmons. The legislation would have required county auditors to create a Jail Voting Plan for every jail, required the jails to implement those plans, and had the Secretary of State’s Office work with the University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy and Governance on recommendations to improve voter registration and voting access for people serving a criminal sentence in jail.

Although it didn’t clear the chamber, and critics argued it violated the Equal Protection Clause by using taxpayer dollars to assist certain types of voters, Blankenship said the “most important conversations that came out of this bill was that tribal jails are a different entity. Tribes have their own autonomy. We have a unique ability to work with the tribes.”

The Reentry Council’s next meeting is Sept. 12.