What to Know About Your Voting Rights If You Are Currently or Formerly Incarcerated in California

When Margaret Wilson was in a California jail in 2022, county officials came in to talk about the midterm election. The women in her housing unit — known as a pod — didn’t want to attend the talk however, telling Wilson that if they couldn’t vote themselves, it wasn’t of relevance.

But for many of them, that was not actually accurate. Since 2016, with some exceptions, Californians like Wilson can vote while they are in jail.

“A lot of the people just didn’t have awareness,” Wilson recalled. Discovering this disconnect prompted her to reach out to family members, asking them to print news articles and resources for her and the people in her pod. “Little by little, they just started to surround me and ask questions,’” she said.

Jump straight to:

• Who can vote if they’re currently or formerly incarcerated?
• How can people previously convicted of a felony vote?
• How can family and friends on the outside assist someone in being able to vote?

The experience left its mark on Wilson after she left jail, and she now works with the Voter Restoration Project, which is run by the San Francisco-based Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice’s Cameo House. With Cameo House, Wilson attends events for formerly incarcerated individuals, setting up voter registration booths and trying to get the word out about people’s right to vote.

Many of the people she spoke with at a recent reentry conference in the Bay Area were hesitant about the idea of voting, Wilson said — but opened up once they realized she had been “in our shoes” as a person also newly out of the system.

Many advocates are trying to streamline and expand accessibility for people in jail, but the details of voter eligibility for those involved with the justice system can be confusing for many. According to a CalMatters report, many people in the system won’t be given sufficient time to vote.

Keep reading for what people who have interacted with the justice system need to know about voting — and how friends and family members outside can be of assistance.

Can someone vote if they were involved with the justice system?

Short answer: Yes, with some exceptions.

Aurora Jimenez — Cameo House’s program manager who runs the Voter Restoration Project and worked with Wilson at the reentry conference — said she spent a lot of time combatting people’s assumptions about voting.

“A lot of people have the misconception of thinking, ‘I can’t do it because I have a record. I can’t do it because I’m on parole or probation or I was in prison,’” Jimenez said. “‘Can I register [to vote] even if I have a misdemeanor, or even if I was in jail?’” is a particular question she “kept hearing.”

However, there are some factors that could prevent someone from voting. In general, someone can vote as long as they are not currently incarcerated with a felony for a state or federal prison sentence. If a person is serving a felony jail sentence in a county jail and it’s not a state prison sentence, they can still vote.

San Francisco’s Department of Elections even has a quick quiz where you can look up specific scenarios.

The following circumstances will not impact someone’s access to voting:

• Being in a local detention facility (jail) and:
  • Serving a misdemeanor sentence
  • Serving jail time as a condition of probation
  • Awaiting trial
• Being on parole or probation (California voters helped this happen with Prop 17, which was on the 2020 ballot.)
• Being on mandatory supervision
• Being on post-release community supervision
• Being on federal supervised release
• Having a juvenile wardship adjudication

The state of California has this information in several other languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, and Japanese.

What if someone in California has previously served a felony?

If a person has completed their felony sentence, they can register to vote after they are released.

A person’s right to vote is restored immediately after they leave prison. If a person is released before Election Day (Nov. 5), they can register at their new address. The deadline to register to vote online is Oct. 21, but a person can still register to vote in person up until the polls close on Election Day (called “conditional registration” or “provisional registration”).

Read more in KQED’s guide to making sure you are registered in California.

Someone I know is in jail. How can they vote?

Some jails partner with local organizations — or have the county’s election department — go into facilities to explain voting rights to incarcerated people, as well as provide voting registration and materials. And some — but not all — justice systems have a dedicated office to which you can reach out about the electoral process.

An example of how this works in Santa Cruz County, according to the American Civil Liberties Union Nor Cal’s Community Toolkit: The County Election Office partners with the sheriff’s office to conduct several trips for voter information and registration before the election. Election officials track registration among these voters, creating a list to hand to the sheriff’s office, which in turn is responsible for distributing election material. Election outreach staff then work with vote-by-mail program staff at the jail “to arrange for the hand delivery of voter information guides and ballots and time return of ballots.”

San Francisco jails also have a similar program, said Melinda Benson from Prisoner Legal Services in San Francisco. Program staff go cell to cell to help with voter registration, handing out ballots and collecting them to return to the city’s elections department. A sealed ballot drop-off box in each house is open until 8 p.m. on Election Day.

But this work is not a seamless process across all jails. A CalMatters investigation found that some incarcerated people don’t get their voter guides in time — or can’t get their guides at all because their mail may have a page limit. And while some advocates and representatives are trying to make casting one’s ballot easier, Newsom recently vetoed a bill that would have allowed a pilot program to try in-person voting at county jails.

The ACLU guide also suggested that ahead of time, family members or friends should make a plan to communicate clearly with their loved ones inside about all of their voter information so they can fully prepare to cast their ballot. This includes making sure the person has information like their driver’s license or state ID number if it’s their first time voting.

Which address should an eligible voter in jail use?

For a person’s voter registration, the ACLU suggests people use their most permanent home address — or note their cross streets if they were unhoused before entering jail.

They should then work with family outside and representatives in the jail ahead of time to make sure they get a ballot from their home county to vote on issues and for candidates in their local community.

For receiving voting materials like their voter guide, however, a person should use the address of the jail as their mailing address. They should include their booking number to make things easier to track, in case they are transferred to a different jail.

Can I mail voter information to people in jail?

People held in prison and jails have access to tablets (although costs for messaging and calls can add up over time, making access prohibitive for many.) People would also have to pay for access to a newsfeed while inside, and there is no permitted way to get on social media or an Internet browser.

Wilson said during her time in jail in 2022, she and the women in her pod were able to see limited news content using jail-issued tablets. However, Wilson also asked her family and kids to print out more thorough articles about criminal justice and advocacy and mail them to her inside — so she could then show the women around her that “people are fighting for us on the outside.”

Mailing voting information directly to people was also the ACLU of Southern California’s strategy when the Orange County sheriff’s office denied their entry into jails for voter registration and providing voter information.

It’s worth emphasizing that mail going into jails is screened. If you’re hoping to send mail to a facility, you should first check with your specific local county jail on what is or is not allowed to be mailed and how to address said mail. For example, in San Francisco, a person cannot mail in an entire magazine or newspaper or anything larger than 8 1/2 inches by 14 inches.

You should also not send anything with paper clips or staples since this could be considered contraband. You should also not forward stationery items or postage.

California — like the rest of the United States — still has a ways to go in expanding voter accessibility, Jimenez said. However, she emphasized the importance of people being able to contribute their opinions on local and national issues.

“A lot of people have the misconception of thinking, ‘My voice doesn’t count.’ And it really does,” Jimenez said. “They add up. It really does make a difference.”