Democracy Behind Bars

Can you vote in California if you’re in jail? Well, yes, of course—under certain conditions. If you’re locked up but not yet convicted of a felony, you can ask for an absentee ballot and participate in the democratic process. Many of those in jail are not eligible to vote because of prior felony convictions. And, in the past anyway, most of those who are eligible, just don’t do it.

In 2004, the ACLU did a big registration push inside LA County’s jail facilities but only 121 people took the ACLU folks up on it, writes the LA Times’ Andrew Blankstein. In the midterm elections two years ago, a pathetic 16 people in the LA County slammer chose to vote.

This year, however, the number of those who wanted to cast ballots shot through the roof, comparatively speaking.

917 inmates registered to vote over the last month, said sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore. Of those, 881 filled out applications to vote by absentee ballot in the California primary.

Much of the credit for the up-tic in captive voting, writes Blankenstein, is due to the fact that the the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder made ballot casting available and understandable. The registrar-recorder’s office “sent representatives to train jail personnel how to register inmates and how to help them to vote.”

And, surprise, surprise, this time when offered the chance to exercise their sacred right as citizens, many went for it.

Yeah, it’s an offbeat elections story but, in its own way, a very hopeful one.