Protecting the Voting Rights of Americans Detained While Awaiting Trial

By Danielle Root and Lee Doyle

In November 2017, men residing in an Allen County, Indiana, jail filed a class-action lawsuit against their local sheriff. The lawsuit alleged that the sheriff had denied the men and others their fundamental right to vote during the 2016 general election while they were being held in jail awaiting trial. According to court filings, jail administrators failed to provide them with information about their voting eligibility. Administrators allegedly also failed to assist them in obtaining absentee ballots and did not provide access to the voting booth on Election Day. Many Americans held in jail while awaiting trial are legally eligible to vote. Each election cycle, however, countless numbers of them are excluded from participating in the democratic process because of structural barriers to voter registration and voting. These individuals—many of whom come from low-income communities and are people of color—are systematically prevented from having their voices heard due to lack of access to voter registration forms, absentee ballots or voting booths, or critical information on voting eligibility. In other words, voting-eligible Americans are routinely being excluded from participating in U.S. democracy due to avoidable obstacles in the voting process.

Center for American Progress, 2018. 9p.