DANVILLE — People in prison can vote in Vermont, Maine and Washington, D.C.
It’s a right that one incarcerated Illinois man would like to have.
“The incarcerated community is probably the largest group of people who have the most skin in the game, yet we’re not acknowledged as stakeholders,” Raúl Dorado said.
About 29,000 people are incarcerated with the Illinois Department of Corrections on felony convictions, according to data released in October. People in jails, which hold people awaiting trial or serving misdemeanor sentences, have the right to vote.
Dorado is serving a life sentence in the Danville Correctional Center. He said restoring the right to vote to those with felony convictions would create a large constituency that public officials would have to respond to.
“I think it would be one of the keys to ending mass incarceration in Illinois,” he said.
Dorado co-wrote a 2019 state law that requires county jails to provide access to voting for people waiting for their trial. It also requires prisons to provide civics education with curricula written by incarcerated people.
People with felony convictions can vote after they are released from prison in Illinois and over 20 other states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Interest in voting from jail higher this year
In Vermilion County, Thursday was the day those in jail could request a ballot.
22 Danville residents and four others in Vermilion County have applied to vote by mail from jail, according to election administrators.
Sandy Delhaye, director of the Danville Election Commission, said those numbers are much higher than for non-presidential elections.
“This is a very big election and a highly publicized election, and I think the inmates there are just like those of us on the outside, they’re very passionate about one candidate or the other. So we’ve had an influx,” Delhaye said.
After the Danville Election Commission processes a vote by mail application from the Vermilion County Public Safety Building, an officer delivers the an envelope with a blank ballot to for the voter in to send in from jail.
Updated Nov. 1, 2024 at 3:49 p.m. to add information about voting from jail in Vermilion County.
Emily Hays is a reporter for Illinois Public Media.