CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – OCTOBER 17: Cook County jail detainees check in before casting their votes after a polling place was opened in the facility for early voting on October 17, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. It is the first time pretrial detainees in the jail will get the opportunity for early voting in a general election. (Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)
OAN’s Abril Elfi
11:16 AM – Monday, June 3, 2024
Colorado Governor Jared Polis has signed a bill that will allow prisoners in county detention centers and jails to vote in statewide general elections.
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On Friday, Polis (D-Colo.) signed the bill into law, making the statewide program the first of its kind, as only a few prisons around the country currently offer in-person voting.
According to a spokesman for the Colorado secretary of state, Jack Todd, the measure will include 61 prisons and detention centers all across Colorado.
Voting is still not permitted in Colorado for people serving time for felonies, but it is permitted for those in jail pending trial or serving time for misdemeanors.
State Senator Julie Gonzales (D-Colo.), who sponsored the bill, said that lawmakers had come to the consensus that those who were eligible to vote weren’t commonly voting due to “hurdles of being behind bars.”
“In Colorado, we really pride ourselves on our gold-star election system,” Gonzales said. “Yet we realized that there was a group of individuals who weren’t able to fully access the ballot.”
Law enforcement and election officials are required by law to provide six hours of in-person voting as well as services that enable individuals who are confined to register to vote. If eligible voters would rather cast their ballots by mail, there will also be a mechanism for them to do so.
County staff will be serving as poll workers, and legislators will make sure that those serving felony convictions cannot cast a vote.
“One of the things that we heard from people who had previously been incarcerated was that being able to weigh in on these elections was so important for them to remember that even though they are navigating the criminal legal system, that they are still a member of a community, a citizen of Colorado, and that they still have rights and obligations,” Gonzales said.
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