In 2022, voters in five states — Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont — will decide on ballot measures to repeal language from their state constitutions that allows slavery or involuntary servitude for the punishment of a crime, or, in Vermont, for the payment of debts, damages, or fines.
As of 2022, 10 states had constitutions that included provisions prohibiting enslavement and involuntary servitude but with an exception for criminal punishments. Nine states had constitutions that included provisions permitting involuntary servitude, but not slavery, as a criminal punishment. One state—Vermont—had a constitutional provision permitting involuntary servitude to pay a debt, damage, fine, or cost. These constitutional provisions were added to state constitutions, in their original forms, from the 1850s to the 1890s.
Measures on the ballot in November:
