MADISON, Wis. – Thousands of people in jails across Wisconsin, awaiting trial or serving misdemeanor sentences, are eligible to vote, but ballot barriers mean few inside exercise that right.
The ACLU attributes the low voter participation in part to the lack of comprehensive inmate voting protocol in state jails. The group’s latest findings show that at least 18 of Wisconsin’s 72 jails, including in Dane and Columbia counties, have no written policy at all.
Thirty-two other jails like those in Rock and Iowa counties rely on policies the ACLU classifies as brief and vague. Those policies don’t address things like deadlines for voting absentee, what address people experiencing homelessness should use to register or what options are available for those who were incarcerated without an ID.
Anthony Cooper works a lot with the people inside the Dane County Jail through his work with Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership as the vice president of reentry services. He said many inside don’t even realize they have the right to vote behind bars.
“You can sit in Dane County Jail or county jail on a misdemeanor charge but yet no one is coming to you and saying, ‘Hey, who do you think should be in office this year?’” Cooper said.
Despite not having a written policy in place, Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett said his office has taken steps to educate inmates about how to register and vote absentee.
Some jails, like those in Columbia and Iowa counties, only provide information about inmate voting by request or during their initial orientation. Barrett said his office takes education a step further.
“Our ultimate goal is to eliminate the barriers that people face while incarcerated so that they can exercise their constitutional rights to vote,” Barrett said.
Since the spring of 2022, the jail has partnered with members of the Dane County Voter ID Coalition. Together, they began by improving the readability of the regular messages inmates receive on their tablets about the voting process.
Julia Gilden with the coalition said the Dane County Sheriff’s Office already had a strong working relationship with the county clerk’s office but was missing the ability to allow people incarcerated the chance to get one-on-one help.
After building their own relationship with the sheriff’s office, she and another member of the coalition were able to meet with residents, the same way an attorney would, to answer questions about registration, eligibility and the electoral process in general.
Residents were able to sign up for those sessions using their tablets but didn’t know in advance when they would happen.
“Occasionally they’re caught a little off guard or maybe they can’t totally remember what their questions are, but we have a lot of experience working with voters who are maybe occasional voters, reluctant voters or new voters,” Gilden said. “We can usually kind of walk through everything that a person needs to get ready to vote.”
She also said the jail would benefit from hosting group workshops on inmate voting, in an addition to the private meetings, so that people could learn from one another and the group could reach those who might not take their initiative otherwise.
Still, even with the added education, inmates across the state are still limited with only the option to vote absentee. So those who were incarcerated after the deadline or just missed it are out of luck.
In neighboring Illinois, however, some inmates are given the option to vote on Election Day after a new law that allowed counties to set up polling places inside detention facilities was established in 2019 and then expanded in 2020.
Currently in Wisconsin, Stat. 5.25 only allows for municipalities to set up polling places, but Gilden said that’s not the only thing that sets the Badger State apart from Illinois.
Even with polling locations inside, some barriers would remain. She said with the biggest challenge, for those voting behind bars, is having access to an acceptable voter ID.
“For folks who don’t have a valid ID on the day that they’re incarcerated or who maybe lose that in the process of their arrest or some other circumstance,” she said, “they’re totally disenfranchised.”
Officials from the Dane, Rock and Jefferson county jails, for their part all indicated, whenever possible, they work with family and friends on the outside to deliver inmate IDs.
Gilden said that still leaves out so many eligible voters who don’t have that option, especially since getting to the DMV isn’t a choice they can make.
In 2020 the ACLU estimated only about 50 eligible voters in jails across Wisconsin submitted a ballot.
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