Millions Left Voiceless in Mid-Term Elections

Millions Left Voiceless in Mid-Term Elections
Wednesday – December 7, 2022 at noon PST
Dr. Nazgol Ghandnoosh, The Sentencing Project

Election day in America has come and gone, and millions of Americans were denied the opportunity to cast their ballot this year due to their history with the criminal legal system. They were left voiceless. Last month, The Sentencing Project released a report which found that 4.6 million Americans – representing two percent of the voting-age population – would be unable to vote this year due to current or previous felony convictions. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of eligible incarcerated voters were unable to cast their ballot because they did not have the information and tools at their disposal to physically cast their ballot.

All of this is particularly concerning at a time when our country is dealing with hard questions about the stability of our democracy and the fairness of our elections. The right to vote should not be a political issue; this is about whether the state should be in the business of denying the franchise to select individuals. It is about the fundamental personhood of every individual and their right to have a say in their representation – regardless of their history with the criminal legal system. Dr. Ghandnoosh will discuss recent research on felony disenfranchisement and reforms to expand access to the ballot box.

Bio:

Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Ph.D., is a senior research analyst at The Sentencing Project. She conducts and synthesizes research on criminal justice policies, with a focus on racial disparities in the justice system, public opinion about punishment, and the scope of reform efforts. She oversees the organization's research on voting restrictions for people with felony records and has explained why incarcerated people should never lose their voting rights. She regularly presents to academic, practitioner, and general audiences and her work has been featured in outlets including the Washington Post, the New York Times, and WNYC's On the Media.

Dr. Ghandnoosh earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her dissertation, "Challenging Mass Incarceration: A California Group's Advocacy for the Parole Release Life Term-to-Life Prisoners," was an in-depth study of a South Los Angeles-based group challenging life imprisonment.

This event is organized by the JPL Anti-Racism Discussion Group. If you are interested in attending, please contact organizer for the Zoom meeting link by 10AM Wednesday, December 7, 2022.