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Voting Rights Restoration

About the Bill
Bill Highlights
Contact Your Legislators
Talking Points & Sample Tweets
Write a Letter to the Editor
Read More
About the Bill
Contact Your Legislators
Social Media
Write a Letter
Read More
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About the Bill

Full title: An Act relative to voting rights restoration (S.428 / H.724) & Proposal for a legislative amendment to the Constitution relative to voting rights (S.8 /H.26)

Lead sponsors: Sen. Liz Miranda & Sen. Adam Gomez; Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven

Committee: Joint Committee on Election Laws

The Issue

Although we often think of the history of voting rights in the US as one of ever-forward motion, Massachusetts stands as an outlier. In the late 1990s, after incarcerated individuals in MCI-Norfolk started organizing for better conditions, Republican Governor Bill Cellucci and the MA Legislature responded with retaliation: a multi-step process of disenfranchisement. In 2000, Massachusetts voters approved a constitutional amendment to prohibit people incarcerated for felonies in state prison from voting in state elections; the subsequent year, Cellucci signed a law to extend this prohibition to federal and municipal elections. Our commonwealth did something rare in recent history: it took away the right to vote from a category of people who were formerly enfranchised.

Approximately 8,000 residents of the Commonwealth are disenfranchised due to a felony conviction, more than 50% of them are Black or Latinx — exacerbating the systemic racism of the criminal legal system.

In 2022, the Massachusetts Legislature took an important step forward when passing the VOTES Act by including language creating protections for jail-based voting for those who still maintain the right to vote, but we must build on that momentum by ending remaining disenfranchisement.

The Solution

These bills would strike the language from the Massachusetts Constitution that prohibits individuals serving time for a felony conviction from voting. By doing so, we would end our state’s role in the systemically racist practice of tying voting rights to incarcerations status.

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Contact Your Legislators

Find your legislators’ contact information here.

Dear [Legislator]: 

Last session, Massachusetts made key strides in voting rights by passing the VOTES Act. In particular, the bill created protections for individuals behind the walls who are able to vote under law, but too often unable to vote in practice. Thank you again for your support in this  effort.

It is time to build on that reform by ending remaining incarceration-based disenfranchisement, joining states like Maine and Vermont (as well as Washington, DC). Indeed, all incarcerated individuals maintained the right to vote in Massachusetts as recently as 2000. 

Please build on this momentum by co-sponsoring S.8/H.26: Proposal for a legislative amendment to the Constitution relative to voting rights, filed by Sen. Liz Miranda and Adam Gomez and Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven. 

As a state that cherishes our role in the creation of American democracy, we must assert clearly that voting is a right for all citizens. Felony disenfranchisement exacerbates the systemic racism of the criminal legal system, and it exacerbates the documented inhumane conditions in our prisons, as incarcerated individuals lose a core ability to speak out. Moreover, civic participation by those behind the walls reduces recidivism by creating durable ties to the outside world and community back home. 

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Talking Points & Sample Tweets

  • Voting is a fundamental right. While other states are trying to restrict the franchise, we should be strengthening it. 
  • Whenever someone loses the right to vote even temporarily, they are likely to mistakenly think that they have lost it permanently. We must eliminate archaic laws that create voter suppression and voter confusion.
  • It’s time for Massachusetts to join Maine, Vermont, and DC in ensuring that all citizens, regardless of incarceration, are able to vote.
  • Felony disenfranchisement exacerbates systemic racism by disproportionately targeting Black and Latinx individuals.
  • Did you know that felony-based disenfranchisement in Massachusetts is as new as this century? It’s time to revisit and end this form of racist voter suppression.
  • Studies are clear: fostering ties to the outside world is central to reducing recidivism. Civic engagement provides just that.
  • Disenfranchisement serves no rehabilitative or punitive purpose. And in Massachusetts, incarcerated organizers such as members of the African American Coalition Committee (AACC) in MCI-Norfolk want to regain the right to vote so they can fulfill their civic duty. It’s time we let them.
  • Thank you to @LizforBoston, @AdamGomezMA, and @rep_erika for filing S.8/H.26 to ensure that incarceration can no longer lead to a loss of voting rights!
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Write a Letter to the Editor

Adapt the template below! Or email us at issues@progressivemass.com for help!

Last session, Massachusetts made key strides in voting rights by passing the VOTES Act. In addition to critical vote-by-mail and early voting reforms, the bill also strengthened protections for individuals behind the walls who are able to vote under law, but too often unable to vote in practice. 

It is time to build on that reform by ending remaining incarceration-based disenfranchisement, joining states like Maine and Vermont (as well as Washington, DC). A proposed constitutional amendment from Sen. Liz Miranda and Adam Gomez and Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven would end remaining incarceration-based disenfranchisement, a practice that many other countries long since abandoned (if they ever embraced at all). 

As a state that cherishes our role in the creation of American democracy, we must assert clearly that voting is a right for all citizens. Felony disenfranchisement exacerbates the systemic racism of the criminal legal system, and it exacerbates the documented inhumane conditions in our prisons, as incarcerated individuals lose a core ability to speak out. Moreover, civic participation by those behind the walls reduces recidivism by creating durable ties to the outside world and community back home. 

All incarcerated individuals had this right until 2000, when a ballot measure took it away, giving Massachusetts the stain of being one of the few states to disenfranchise a whole category of voters in recent history. Let’s right that wrong and recognize voting for the right that we believe it to be. 

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