Incarcerated Californians can’t vote. A prison held an election anyway

Like many states, California prohibits incarcerated people with felonies from voting, affecting more than 90,000 people in state prisons. Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images/San Quentin Rehabilitation Center/Mount Tamalpais College

An estimated 4 million US citizens are barred from voting because they have a felony conviction. That includes most Americans serving prison sentences.

But last week at San Quentin, the 172-year-old prison in the San Francisco Bay Area, residents had a rare opportunity to weigh in on a US election where so much is on the line.