Ahead of 2024, Felons Fight to Regain Right to Vote

Dennis Hopkins was convicted of theft 25 years ago in Mississippi and has long been out of prison. He has raised a family, built a towing business and coached local youth sports teams. There is one thing he hasn’t done: vote. Now he is the lead plaintiff in a class-action case challenging the state’s disenfranchisement […]

Legal efforts challenge Youngkin’s pace on rights restoration

After taking office on Jan. 15, 2022, Gov. Glenn Youngkin continued a policy of his predecessors by restoring voting rights to 3,496 Virginians formerly incarcerated for felonies. Then, on May 20, 2022, he halted the practice, miring the voter restoration process for former felons in confusion and secrecy.

Common Cause Promotes Dan Vicuña to Director of Redistricting and Representation

Washington, DC — Common Cause announced today that longtime policy staffer Dan Vicuña will lead the organization’s anti-gerrymandering work as Director of Redistricting and Representation. He succeeds Kathay Feng in this role after she was named Common Cause’s Vice President of Programs. Vicuña steps into the position on the heels of the 50-year-old organization’s major […]

Getting Young Voters to the Polls Isn’t as Simple as All Digital All the Time

Young Americans are voting in higher numbers. The 2022 midterms saw the highest turnout of voters ages 18-29 in three decades. Some 50 percent of that age group voted in 2020 — an 11-point increase from 2016. Still, many candidates have a hard time identifying, persuading and mobilizing these voters — particularly those down-ballot running […]

Voter restoration groups petitioning Supreme Court

FRANKFORT — The Fair Elections Center and Kentucky Equal Justice Center will be petitioning the U.S Supreme Court on their voting rights restoration lawsuit against the state of Kentucky for not automatically restoring voting rights after felony prison sentences are completed. After a three-judge panel from the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati […]

Voting rights of former felons could be on the line in Kentucky’s governor race

Much like the last two gubernatorial elections in Kentucky, whoever wins the race this year could determine whether tens of thousands of Kentuckians who have completed a felony sentence will have the right to vote over the next four years. Kentucky is one of only three states where people convicted of a felony can only […]

In reversal, some states make it harder for people with felony convictions to vote

The year started out strong for advocates trying to make it easier for people with felony convictions to regain their voting rights. In March, the Democratic-led legislatures in Minnesota and New Mexico enacted measures that cleared a pathway for residents serving prison time for felonies to regain their right to vote upon being released. It […]

Kentucky’s Governor Race Could Unwind Voting Rights Restoration

When Kentuckians choose their governor in November, they’ll also be deciding whether some of their neighbors can access the ballot at all in future elections. At issue is an executive order Democratic Governor Andy Beshear issued in 2019, on his third day in office, that has restored the voting rights of at least about 180,000 […]