II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1677
To secure the Federal voting rights of persons when released from
incarceration.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MAY18, 2023
Mr. C
ARDIN(for himself, Mr. SCHATZ, Mr. PADILLA, Mr. CASEY, Mrs. FEIN-
STEIN, Ms. WARREN, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. MENENDEZ, Ms. SMITH, Mr.
W
ELCH, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Ms. KLO-
BUCHAR, Mr. SANDERS, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. VANHOLLEN,
Ms. H
IRONO, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Mr. KAINE, Mr. BROWN, and Mr. DURBIN)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To secure the Federal voting rights of persons when released
from incarceration.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Democracy Restoration 4
Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress makes the following findings: 7
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(1) The right to vote is the most basic constitu-1
tive act of citizenship. Regaining the right to vote 2
reintegrates individuals with criminal convictions 3
into free society, helping to enhance public safety. 4
(2) Article I, section 4, of the Constitution 5
grants Congress ultimate supervisory power over 6
Federal elections, an authority which has repeatedly 7
been upheld by the United States Supreme Court. 8
(3) Basic constitutional principles of fairness 9
and equal protection require an equal opportunity 10
for citizens of the United States to vote in Federal 11
elections. The right to vote may not be abridged or 12
denied by the United States or by any State on ac-13
count of race, color, gender, or previous condition of 14
servitude. The 13th, 14th, 15th, 19th, 24th, and 15
26th Amendments to the Constitution empower Con-16
gress to enact measures to protect the right to vote 17
in Federal elections. The 8th Amendment to the 18
Constitution provides for no excessive bail to be re-19
quired, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and 20
unusual punishments inflicted. 21
(4) There are 3 areas in which discrepancies in 22
State laws regarding criminal convictions lead to un-23
fairness in Federal elections— 24
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(A) the lack of a uniform standard for vot-1
ing in Federal elections leads to an unfair dis-2
parity and unequal participation in Federal 3
elections based solely on where a person lives; 4
(B) laws governing the restoration of vot-5
ing rights after a criminal conviction vary 6
throughout the country and persons in some 7
States can easily regain their voting rights 8
while in other States persons effectively lose 9
their right to vote permanently; and 10
(C) State disenfranchisement laws dis-11
proportionately impact racial and ethnic minori-12
ties. 13
(5) State disenfranchisement laws vary widely. 14
Two States (Maine and Vermont) and the Common-15
wealth of Puerto Rico do not disenfranchise individ-16
uals with criminal convictions at all. In 2020, the 17
District of Columbia re-enfranchised its citizens who 18
are under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of 19
Prisons. Twenty-five States disenfranchise certain 20
individuals on felony probation or parole. During 21
2023, lawmakers in Minnesota and New Mexico ex-22
panded voting rights to citizens on felony probation 23
and parole. In 11 States, a conviction for certain of-24
fenses can result in lifetime disenfranchisement. 25
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(6) Several States deny the right to vote to in-1
dividuals convicted of certain misdemeanors. 2
(7) In 2022, over 4,600,000 citizens of the 3
United States, or about 1 in 50 adults in the United 4
States, could not vote as a result of a felony convic-5
tion. Of the 4,600,000 citizens barred from voting 6
then, only 23 percent were in prison or jail. By con-7
trast, 75 percent of persons disenfranchised then re-8
sided in their communities while on probation or pa-9
role or after having completed their sentences. Ap-10
proximately 2,200,000 citizens who had completed 11
their sentences were disenfranchised due to restric-12
tive State laws. Over 930,000 Floridians who com-13
pleted their sentence remain disenfranchised because 14
of a pay-to-vote requirement that was enacted by 15
Florida lawmakers in 2019 to undermine the impact 16
of a 2018 ballot initiative that eliminated the life-17
time ban for persons with certain felony convictions. 18
In 3 States—Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee— 19
more than 8 percent of the total population is 20
disenfranchised. 21
(8) In those States that disenfranchise individ-22
uals post-sentence, the right to vote can be regained 23
in theory, but in practice this possibility is often 24
granted in a non-uniform and potentially discrimina-25
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tory manner. Disenfranchised individuals sometimes 1
must either obtain a pardon or an order from the 2
Governor or an action by the parole or pardon 3
board, depending on the offense and State. Financial 4
restrictions may also inhibit individuals who have 5
completed their sentences from re-enfranchisement. 6
Individuals convicted of a Federal offense often have 7
additional barriers to regaining voting rights. 8
(9) Many felony disenfranchisement laws today 9
derive directly from post-Civil War efforts to stifle 10
the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Between 11
1865 and 1880, at least 14 States—Alabama, Ar-12
kansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Mis-13
sissippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Caro-14
lina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas—en-15
acted or expanded their felony disenfranchisement 16
laws. One of the primary goals of these laws was to 17
prevent African Americans from voting. Of the 18
States that enacted or expanded their felony dis-19
enfranchisement laws during this post-Civil War pe-20
riod, at least 11 continue to preclude persons on fel-21
ony probation or parole from voting. 22
(10) State disenfranchisement laws dispropor-23
tionately impact racial and ethnic minorities. In re-24
cent years, African Americans have been imprisoned 25
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at over 5 times the rate of Whites. More than 6 per-1
cent of the voting-age African-American population, 2
or 1,800,000 African Americans, are disenfranchised 3
due to a felony conviction. In 9 States—Alabama 4
(16 percent), Arizona (13 percent), Florida (15 per-5
cent), Kentucky (15 percent), Mississippi (16 per-6
cent), South Dakota (14 percent), Tennessee (21 7
percent), Virginia (16 percent), and Wyoming (36 8
percent)—more than 1 in 8 African Americans are 9
unable to vote because of a felony conviction, twice 10
the national average for African Americans. 11
(11) Latino citizens are also disproportionately 12
disenfranchised based upon their disproportionate 13
representation in the criminal justice system. Al-14
though data on ethnicity in correctional populations 15
are unevenly reported and undercounted in some 16
States, a conservative estimate is that at least 17
506,000 Latino Americans or 1.7 percent of the vot-18
ing-age population are disenfranchised. More than 2 19
percent of the voting-age Latino population, or 20
560,000 Latinos, are disenfranchised due to a felony 21
conviction. In 31 States Latinos are disenfranchised 22
at a higher rate than the general population. In Ari-23
zona and Tennessee over 6 percent of Latino voters 24
are disenfranchised due to a felony conviction. 25
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(12) Women have been significantly impacted 1
by mass incarceration since the early 1980s. Ap-2
proximately 1,000,000 women were disenfranchised 3
in 2022, comprising over 20 percent of the total 4
disenfranchised population. 5
(13) Disenfranchising citizens who have been 6
convicted of a criminal offense and who are living 7
and working in the community serves no compelling 8
State interest and hinders their rehabilitation and 9
reintegration into society. Models of successful re- 10
entry for persons convicted of a crime emphasize the 11
importance of community ties, feeling vested and in-12
tegrated, and prosocial attitudes. Individuals with 13
criminal convictions who succeed in avoiding recidi-14
vism are typically more likely to see themselves as 15
law-abiding members of the community. Restoration 16
of voting rights builds those qualities and facilitates 17
reintegration into the community. That is why allow-18
ing citizens with criminal convictions who are living 19
in a community to vote is correlated with a lower 20
likelihood of recidivism. Restoration of voting rights 21
thus reduces violence and protects public safety. 22
(14) State disenfranchisement laws can sup-23
press electoral participation among eligible voters by 24
discouraging voting among family and community 25
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members of disenfranchised persons. Future elec-1
toral participation by the children of disenfranchised 2
parents may be impacted as well. 3
(15) The United States is one of the only West-4
ern democracies that permits the permanent denial 5
of voting rights for individuals with felony convic-6
tions. 7
(16) The Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on 8
cruel and unusual punishments ‘‘guarantees individ-9
uals the right not to be subjected to excessive sanc-10
tions.’’ (Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 560 11
(2005)). That right stems from the basic precept of 12
justice ‘‘that punishment for crime should be grad-13
uated and proportioned to [the] offense.’’ Id. 14
(quoting Weems v. United States, 217 U.S. 349, 15
367 (1910)). As the Supreme Court has long recog-16
nized, ‘‘[t]he concept of proportionality is central to 17
the Eighth Amendment.’’ (Graham v. Florida, 560 18
U.S. 48, 59 (2010)). Many State disenfranchisement 19
laws are grossly disproportional to the offenses that 20
lead to disenfranchisement and thus violate the bar 21
on cruel and unusual punishments. For example, a 22
number of States mandate lifetime disenfranchise-23
ment for a single felony conviction or just two felony 24
convictions, even where the convictions were for non- 25
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violent offenses. In numerous other States, dis-1
enfranchisement can last years or even decades while 2
individuals remain on probation or parole, often only 3
because a person cannot pay their legal financial ob-4
ligations. These kinds of extreme voting bans run 5
afoul of the Eighth Amendment. 6
(17) The Twenty-Fourth Amendment provides 7
that the right to vote ‘‘shall not be denied or 8
abridged by the United States or any State by rea-9
son of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.’’ Sec-10
tion 2 of the Twenty-Fourth Amendment gives Con-11
gress the power to enforce this article by appropriate 12
legislation. Court fines and fees that individuals 13
must pay to have their voting rights restored con-14
stitute an ‘‘other tax’’ for purposes of the Twenty- 15
Fourth Amendment. At least five States explicitly 16
require the payment of fines and fees before individ-17
uals with felony convictions can have their voting 18
rights restored. More than 20 other States effec-19
tively tie the right to vote to the payment of fines 20
and fees, by requiring that individuals complete their 21
probation or parole before their rights are restored. 22
In these States, the non-payment of fines and fees 23
is a basis on which probation or parole can be ex-24
tended. Moreover, these States sometimes do not 25
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record the basis on which an individual’s probation 1
or parole was extended, making it impossible to de-2
termine from the State’s records whether non-pay-3
ment of fines and fees is the reason that an indi-4
vidual remains on probation or parole. For these 5
reasons, the only way to ensure that States do not 6
deny the right to vote based solely on non-payment 7
of fines and fees is to prevent States from condi-8
tioning voting rights on the completion of probation 9
or parole. 10
SEC. 3. RIGHTS OF CITIZENS. 11
The right of an individual who is a citizen of the 12
United States to vote in any election for Federal office 13
shall not be denied or abridged because that individual has 14
been convicted of a criminal offense unless such individual 15
is serving a felony sentence in a correctional institution 16
or facility at the time of the election. 17
SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT. 18
(a) A
TTORNEYGENERAL.—The Attorney General 19
may, in a civil action, obtain such declaratory or injunctive 20
relief as is necessary to remedy a violation of this Act. 21
(b) P
RIVATERIGHT OFACTION.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—A person who is aggrieved 23
by a violation of this Act may provide written notice 24
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of the violation to the chief election official of the 1
State involved. 2
(2) R
ELIEF.—Except as provided in paragraph 3
(3), if the violation is not corrected within 90 days 4
after receipt of a notice under paragraph (1), or 5
within 20 days after receipt of the notice if the viola-6
tion occurred within 120 days before the date of an 7
election for Federal office, the aggrieved person 8
may, in a civil action, obtain declaratory or injunc-9
tive relief with respect to the violation. 10
(3) E
XCEPTION.—If the violation occurred 11
within 30 days before the date of an election for 12
Federal office, the aggrieved person need not provide 13
notice to the chief election official of the State under 14
paragraph (1) before bringing a civil action to obtain 15
declaratory or injunctive relief with respect to the 16
violation. 17
SEC. 5. NOTIFICATION OF RESTORATION OF VOTING 18
RIGHTS. 19
(a) S
TATENOTIFICATION.— 20
(1) N
OTIFICATION.—On the date determined 21
under paragraph (2), each State shall notify in writ-22
ing any individual who has been convicted of a 23
criminal offense under the law of that State that 24
such individual has the right to vote in an election 25
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for Federal office pursuant to the Democracy Res-1
toration Act of 2023 and may register to vote in any 2
such election and provide such individuals with any 3
materials that are necessary to register to vote in 4
any such election. 5
(2) D
ATE OF NOTIFICATION.— 6
(A) F
ELONY CONVICTION.—In the case of 7
such an individual who has been convicted of a 8
felony, the notification required under para-9
graph (1) shall be given on the date on which 10
the individual— 11
(i) is sentenced to serve only a term 12
of probation; or 13
(ii) is released from the custody of 14
that State (other than to the custody of 15
another State or the Federal Government 16
to serve a term of imprisonment for a fel-17
ony conviction). 18
(B) M
ISDEMEANOR CONVICTION .—In the 19
case of such an individual who has been con-20
victed of a misdemeanor, the notification re-21
quired under paragraph (1) shall be given on 22
the date on which such individual is sentenced 23
by a State court. 24
(b) F
EDERALNOTIFICATION.— 25
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(1) NOTIFICATION.—Any individual who has 1
been convicted of a criminal offense under Federal 2
law shall be notified in accordance with paragraph 3
(2) that such individual has the right to vote in an 4
election for Federal office pursuant to the Democ-5
racy Restoration Act of 2023 and may register to 6
vote in any such election. 7
(2) D
ATE OF NOTIFICATION.— 8
(A) F
ELONY CONVICTION.—In the case of 9
such an individual who has been convicted of a 10
felony, the notification required under para-11
graph (1) shall be given— 12
(i) in the case of an individual who is 13
sentenced to serve only a term of proba-14
tion, by the Assistant Director for the Of-15
fice of Probation and Pretrial Services of 16
the Administrative Office of the United 17
States Courts on the date on which the in-18
dividual is sentenced; or 19
(ii) in the case of any individual com-20
mitted to the custody of the Bureau of 21
Prisons, by the Director of the Bureau of 22
Prisons, during the period beginning on 23
the date that is 6 months before such indi-24
vidual is released and ending on the date 25
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such individual is released from the cus-1
tody of the Bureau of Prisons. 2
(B) M
ISDEMEANOR CONVICTION .—In the 3
case of such an individual who has been con-4
victed of a misdemeanor, the notification re-5
quired under paragraph (1) shall be given on 6
the date on which such individual is sentenced 7
by a court established by an Act of Congress. 8
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 9
For purposes of this Act: 10
(1) C
ORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION OR FACIL -11
ITY.—The term ‘‘correctional institution or facility’’ 12
means any prison, penitentiary, jail, or other institu-13
tion or facility for the confinement of individuals 14
convicted of criminal offenses, whether publicly or 15
privately operated, except that such term does not 16
include any residential community treatment center 17
(or similar public or private facility). 18
(2) E
LECTION.—The term ‘‘election’’ means— 19
(A) a general, special, primary, or runoff 20
election; 21
(B) a convention or caucus of a political 22
party held to nominate a candidate; 23
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(C) a primary election held for the selec-1
tion of delegates to a national nominating con-2
vention of a political party; or 3
(D) a primary election held for the expres-4
sion of a preference for the nomination of per-5
sons for election to the office of President. 6
(3) F
EDERAL OFFICE.—The term ‘‘Federal of-7
fice’’ means the office of President or Vice President 8
of the United States, or of Senator or Representa-9
tive in, or Delegate or Resident Commissioner to, 10
the Congress of the United States. 11
(4) P
ROBATION.—The term ‘‘probation’’ means 12
probation, imposed by a Federal, State, or local 13
court, with or without a condition on the individual 14
involved concerning— 15
(A) the individual’s freedom of movement; 16
(B) the payment of damages by the indi-17
vidual; 18
(C) periodic reporting by the individual to 19
an officer of the court; or 20
(D) supervision of the individual by an of-21
ficer of the court. 22
SEC. 7. RELATION TO OTHER LAWS. 23
(a) S
TATELAWSRELATING TOVOTINGRIGHTS.— 24
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to prohibit any 25
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State from enacting any State law which affords the right 1
to vote in any election for Federal office on terms less 2
restrictive than those established by this Act. 3
(b) C
ERTAINFEDERALACTS.—The rights and rem-4
edies established by this Act are in addition to all other 5
rights and remedies provided by law, and neither rights 6
and remedies established by this Act shall supersede, re-7
strict, or limit the application of the Voting Rights Act 8
of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et seq.), the National Voter 9
Registration Act (52 U.S.C. 20501), or the Help America 10
Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20901 et seq.). 11
SEC. 8. FEDERAL PRISON FUNDS. 12
No State, unit of local government, or other person 13
may receive or use, to construct or otherwise improve a 14
prison, jail, or other place of incarceration, any Federal 15
funds unless that State, unit of local government, or per-16
son— 17
(1) is in compliance with section 3; and 18
(2) has in effect a program under which each 19
individual incarcerated in that person’s jurisdiction 20
who is a citizen of the United States is notified, 21
upon release from such incarceration, of that indi-22
vidual’s rights under section 3. 23
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SEC. 9. EFFECTIVE DATE. 1
This Act shall apply to citizens of the United States 2
voting in any election for Federal office held on or after 3
the date of the enactment of this Act. 4
Æ
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