States Examine Prisoner Voting Rights as Incarceration Rates Rise

by Jane C. Timm

Joseph Jackson was one of the millions of Americans inspired by Barack Obama's 2008 White House bid. A black man in the nation's whitest state, he coordinated voter registration drives and cast his first-ever ballot for the candidate who would become the nation's first African-American president.

And he did it all while incarcerated in a maximum-security prison, serving 19 years for manslaughter.

That's because Jackson, 52, was convicted in Maine, one of just two states that allow felons to vote from behind bars. In the U.S., nearly all convicted felons are disenfranchised during their prison sentences and, often, barred from the ballot for years after release. Sometimes, offenders lose the right to vote for life. 

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Source: NBC News