The states where it’s impossible to vote if you have a felony conviction

A woman wears a pin that reads ‘Yes on 4’ in support of amendment 4, restoring the voting rights of people with felony convictions, in Miami, Florida, in 2018. Photograph: Wilfredo Lee/AP

When a US federal appeals court issued an opinion last month striking down Mississippi’s practice of revoking voting rights for life from people convicted of certain felonies, the state lost its designation as the most difficult for people with felony convictions to restore their right to vote.

The fifth circuit court of appeals panel found that the state’s felony disenfranchisement policy violated the constitution’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling followed a pattern of states in recent years moving away from their Jim Crow-era policies – an estimated 4.6 million Americans were barred from participating in elections as of October 2022, a number that’s down 24% since 2016, according to the Sentencing Project.