Barred from voting

State laws prohibit millions of ex-felons from voting -- and favor Republicans at the polls. But activists say prisoners who served their time have every right to serve their country by casting a ballot.

By Katharine Mieszkowski

Read more: Politics, News, Katharine Mieszkowski, 2006 Elections

Oct. 19, 2006 | When Koren Carbuccia went to prison for the second time, her son, Vaskan, was just 3 months old. Being incarcerated during the earliest years of his life changed hers. She wanted nothing more than to be home with him.

Carbuccia had gone to prison for dealing cocaine. She was just 20 years old the first time she was caught. She was working the night shift at a clothing factory while going to school during the day, studying to become an emergency medical technician. Carbuccia wasn't a user, she says; dealing just meant easy money.

But not for long. After being released from jail, Carbuccia, who lives in Pawtucket, R.I., just outside of Providence, was arrested again for possessing drugs. "Wrong company, wrong friends," she says with a sigh. This time, she'd been on leave from her restaurant job as a waitress.

Carbuccia won an early release in February 2005. Today, at 27, she is a student at Community College of Rhode Island, studying substance abuse counseling, and working toward a master's degree. While going to school and caring for her son, she also works 20 hours a week doing data entry at the Family Life Center in Providence, which provides assistance for ex-offenders and their families. Recently, she took Vaskan, now almost 5, to his first day of preschool. "I want to do the right thing," says Carbuccia, who describes herself as a PTA mom. "I want to be responsible and raise my child. "

But there's one way Carbuccia isn't like other moms, and as the law in Rhode Island now stands, won't be until 2017. Only then, when she's completed both parole and probation, will she be allowed to vote. Until she's 38 years old, she'll be a second-class citizen, working, parenting, studying, paying taxes, but unable to cast a ballot. In a state of just 1 million, she's one of more than 15,000 disenfranchised voters because of prior felonies.

Across the U.S., nearly 4 million people with felony convictions, who are out of prison, have no say in their own government, and won't be going to the polls on Nov. 7. Their lost votes could make a decisive difference in close Senate and House races this fall, especially in Florida, Kentucky and Virginia, where, unlike most states, felons, even after serving their time, never regain the right to vote. Among the races that could be affected are Virginia Sen. George Allen's attempt to retain his Senate seat, despite his recently exposed history of using racial slurs, and the House race for Kentucky District 3, where polls now show Republican Anne Northup essentially tied in her attempts to keep her seat from challenger Democrat John Yarmuth.

Sociologists who have long studied the disenfranchisement of felons say that the lost votes amount to a built-in advantage for Republicans, seen most famously in the 2000 presidential race in Florida, in which Al Gore would have likely beat George W. Bush had ex-felons been allowed to vote.

The war on drugs and a trend toward tougher sentencing laws have seen the nation's prison population swell over the past few decades. In Rhode Island, for instance, some 40 percent of inmates are in prison for nonviolent drug offenses, like Carbuccia's.

What it means to be disenfranchised really hit Carbuccia one day when she was talking with mothers at her son's day care about upcoming school-board elections. "I thought, 'Oh my God. Do you mean I can't say anything? You're pretty much putting a hand over my mouth.'" She wants to be able to vote not only to influence policies that will affect her son's education, but to set a good example for Vaskan about the importance of participating. "It's not uncommon for parents to take their kids to the polls and I can't do that," she says.

This year, Carbuccia joined a campaign, organized by the nonprofit where she works, to change the law in Rhode Island to allow felony parolees and probationers to go to the polls. On Nov. 7, Rhode Islanders will vote on a referendum, which if it passes would amend the state's Constitution to give ex-felons, now living on the outside, the right to vote. While Carbuccia can't vote on the measure, she is vocal about why she thinks it should pass, speaking out at rallies and appearing in ads in support of the campaign. "Voting is a responsibility of each and every citizen," she says. "We want one vote, just like everyone else."

Next page: Why Gore would have won in 2000