We support Restoration of Voting Rights in Oregon
Northwest Health Foundation lends lobbying capacity to legislative work that aligns with our values and is led by our grantees. We regularly check-in with our grantees and ask about their legislative priorities. Several of our grantees have endorsed the Oregon Restoration of Voting Rights that would ensure that those incarcerated have access to voting, and NWHF has chosen this bill as our priority for 2022.
2/14/22 Update: Unfortunately, HB 4147 will not receive a hearing this legislative session, and, as a result, legislators will not have an opportunity to vote on Restoration of Voting Rights this year. The work to change hearts and minds, to ensure that EVERYONE can access their voting rights, is long, and the Restoration of Voting Rights in Oregon coalition will continue to fight for the rights of our incarcerated community to vote. The coalition hopes to receive an *informational* hearing this year and bring back this critical legislation in 2023. (An informational hearing is an opportunity for legislators to hear directly from bill writers about the potential impact of a bill.)
The Problem
All citizens should have access to the right to vote, but in the United States, adults in custody in prison were stripped of this universal right during the Jim Crow era. Allegedly, the U.S. prison system advances public safety and rehabilitates people who have done harm. Taking away voting rights accomplishes neither.
While the practice of denying voting rights to people in prison is widespread in the United States, it has little basis beyond a desire to silence the voices of the incarcerated. Due to disproportionate rates of imprisonment, Black, Latinx, Indigenous and young people are disenfranchised at disproportionately higher rates.
Additionally, ninety-five percent of people in prison return to their communities. Reentry can be a difficult process, but having strong ties to the community increases the chances of success. Civic engagement, specifically voting, increases the ability to reintegrate, reducing recidivism and making communities safer.
People in prison also often have families on the outside. 75% of women in Oregon prisons are mothers. The families of those in prison are impacted by the decisions made by elected officials; therefore, people in prison should be able to influence the electoral process.
While Oregon leads in many ways on voter access, thanks to automatic voter registration, universal vote-by-mail and paid postage, it is clear that we need to reckon with and address the disenfranchisement of people who are incarcerated. In 2022, Oregon has the opportunity to join other states at the forefront of restoration of voting rights and allow all eligible citizens to vote regardless of incarceration status.
The Solution
Restoring the right to vote is a key step toward eliminating laws rooted in white supremacy that have no correlation to public safety. House Bill 4147 would restore voting rights to adults in the custody of the Oregon Department of Corrections. With this change, Oregon would join Maine, Vermont, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico at the vanguard of universal suffrage. Under this proposal, adults in custody would use their last residence prior to incarceration for purposes of registration. People registered to vote at the time of incarceration would retain their registration at this previous address, while unregistered people could use this pre-incarceration address for purposes of registration.
The proposal gives the Secretary of State and the Department of Corrections responsibility for developing procedures for voting during incarceration. These procedures must allow adults in custody to:
Register to vote and update an existing voter registration
Receive all election materials, including ballots and voters’ pamphlets
Cast a ballot in each election
Although the ultimate framework is left up to the Secretary of State and the Department of Corrections, given Oregon’s status as a vote-by-mail state, adults in custody would receive mail-in ballots at the prison that correspond to their pre-incarceration address. Maine and Vermont similarly use mail-in ballots for incarcerated individuals.
The Players
Next Up Action Fund and Oregon Justice Resource Center lead the Oregon Restoration of Voting Rights coalition, and endorsers include 20+ organizations, including APANO, NAYA, Urban League of Portland and Imagine Black.
What brought Next Up to this work?
“We got involved with this issue in 2018 after being invited to present our work to a group of incarcerated young men at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility. Over the course of a year, we returned to the facility and strategized with incarcerated youth on how they could take part in the legislative process. We learned about the key life experiences that incarcerated young people miss out on: going to the drive-in, playing sports, and casting their first ballot when they turn voting age. We heard resoundingly that restoring the right to vote was imperative.”
Who to reach out to if you have questions about the coalition:
Isabela Villarreal, Policy and Communications Manager at Next Up, isabela@nextuporegon.org
Additional Resources