Here are the basics on Georgia: 

For January 5, 2021 Senate Run Off Election

• One of the two runoffs will resolve a special election following the early retirement of Johnny Isakson, a Republican who is in poor health. The top two vote getters in the first round of that special election will now face each other. They are Senator Kelly Loeffler, a Republican businesswoman whom Georgia’s governor appointed to the seat, and Raphael Warnock, the head pastor at the Atlanta church that Martin Luther King Jr. once ran.

• The second runoff is between Senator David Perdue, a Republican running on the normal schedule for a second term, and Jon Ossoff, the Democratic nominee and a documentary filmmaker. 

Harry Thomas Jr is inviting you to join the fight.

Millions of Americans are barred from voting because of criminal convictions in their past. Felony disenfranchisement laws — relics of Jim Crow — hit Black Americans disproportionately hard because of bias in the criminal justice system. The Brennan Center advances policies to re-enfranchise Americans who are living in the community, and we fight policies making it harder for Americans with past convictions to vote.

State felony disenfranchisement laws keep millions of Americans from voting. These laws aren’t just anti-democratic — they send the message that the voices of individuals returning to their communities don’t count. And these voting bans disproportionately affect Black Americans.

But we can change this. Since 2018, a growing number of states have changed their laws — either through constitutional amendment, legislation, or executive action — to allow more Americans with past convictions to vote. Other states are considering similar reforms, and we’re urging Congress to pass legislation that would re-enfranchise in federal elections the millions of Americans who are no longer incarcerated but still can’t vote.

This progress has not been without setbacks, emphasizing the need for Congress to step in and impose a national standard. In 2018, Florida voters passed a ballot measure that was expected to re-enfranchise about 1.4 million Floridians — an outcome the Brennan Center has worked on for nearly two decades. But months later, the state enacted a law that severely curtailed the measure’s impact by requiring those whose rights had just been restored to pay off certain court debts before they can vote. And in 2023, Virginia’s governor reversed an executive action that had provided a pathway for citizens to regain their voting rights, making Virginia the only state that permanently bars all citizens with past convictions from voting.

Despite this backsliding, restoring voting rights continues to be an issue that unites voters from all walks of life, and this bipartisan support indicates that more progress is ahead.

Felony disenfranchisement laws, which take away someone’s freedom to vote if they have been convicted of a felony, are the biggest remaining obstacle to a truly inclusive and equitable democracy in America. 

These laws proliferated in the United States as an intentional scheme to strip Black Americans of their freedom to vote and continue to disproportionately impact Black and brown voters. 

Today, nearly 5 million people nationwide are disenfranchised due to a felony conviction, and almost 18 million more may be effectively disenfranchised because of state barriers like confusing laws, onerous paperwork requirements, or fear of being prosecuted.  

Additionally, tens of thousands of eligible voters who haven’t even been convicted of a crime are incarcerated in county jails, but are unable to participate in our democracy because of the everyday barriers posed by incarceration.   

This is a direct affront to the ideals of our democracy — and local and national advocates are fighting back. On December 6, Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Peter Welch introduced the Inclusive Democracy Act, which would dramatically advance our democracy by guaranteeing the right to vote in federal elections for Americans regardless of a criminal conviction. 

2024 election dates and deadlinesVoting in 2024Voter registrationEarly votingAbsentee/mail-in votingAll-mail votingVoter ID lawsState poll opening and closing times

Congress should pass the Democracy Restoration Act, and states should also ensure that if you’re a voting-age citizen living in the community, you get to vote.

In the US, almost all people with felony convictions lose their voting rights for a certain period.

States set rules about how a felony conviction affects a resident’s ability to vote. Most states automatically restore voting rights either after release from prison or after probation or parole. Some states automatically restore voting rights under specific circumstances, depending on the nature of the crime or an individual’s criminal history. Meanwhile, two states, plus Washington, DC, never revoke the voting rights of individuals convicted of a felony.

At the end of 2021, more than 1.2 million people were incarcerated in state or federal prisons, according to the Department of Justice.

1. In two states (Maine and Vermont) and Washington, D.C., people convicted of a felony always retain the right to vote.
2. In 22 states, voting rights are restored to people convicted of a felony automatically upon completion of their prison sentence. This tally includes New Mexico due to legislation signed on March 30, 2023.
3. In one state, Connecticut, voting rights are restored to people convicted of a felony automatically upon completion of prison and parole time.
4. In 15 states, voting rights are restored to peple convicted of a felony automatically upon completion of their sentence, including prison time, parole, and probation.
5. In 10 states, voting rights are not automatically restored to people convicted of a felony.However, the governor may opt to restore an individual's voting rights by pardon on a case-by-case basis. This tally includes Arizona, where voting rights are automatically restored for people with one felony conviction, but government action is required to restore voting rights for people with two or more felony convictions. Virginia is also included here. In 2023, Governor Glenn Youngkin's (R) administration announced that he would not continue the policy of automatically restoring voting rights for people convicted of a felony that previous governors used their powers to enact. Mississippi is included here as well. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled on August 4, 2023, that Mississippi's lifetime voting ban for people convicted of certain felonies was unconstitutional. Mississippi filed an en banc petition on August 18. Click here to read more about the litigation.