Number of People by State Who Cannot Vote Due to a Felony Conviction - Felon Voting

Felon Voting

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Last updated on: 11/7/2012 7:11:46 AM PST

Number of People by State Who Cannot Vote Due to a Felony Conviction

State Felon Disenfranchisement Totals, 2010

In 2010 an estimated 5.85 million people in the United States (2.5% of the nation's voting age population, excluding DC) could not vote due to a felony conviction - an increase from the 2004 total of 5.26 million and the highest number since at least 1960.

7.66% of African Americans in the United States could not vote due to a felony conviction. In Florida 23.32% of African Americans were disenfranchised - the highest percent in the nation.

Chart I below shows the number and percent of disenfranchised voters for the top 10 states with the highest levels of disenfranchisement. Chart II breaks down the total numbers of disenfranchised voters for each state. Chart III shows the rise in disenfranchisement from 1960-2010.

All data below were taken from The Sentencing Project's July 2012 report "State-Level Estimates of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States, 2010" (452KB)

, by Christopher Uggen, Sarah Shannon, and Jeff Manza.

I. Top 10 States with the Highest Percentage of Disenfranchised Voters, 2010

Rank	State	Total Number of Disenfranchised Voters	Percent of Disenfranchised Voters

1	Florida	1,541,602	10.42%
2	Mississippi	182,814	8.27%
3	Kentucky	243,842	7.35%
4	Virginia	451,471	7.34%
5	Alabama	262,354	7.19%
6	Tennessee	341,815	7.05%
7	Wyoming	25,657	5.99%
8	Nevada	86,321	4.24%
9	Arizona	199,734	4.19%
10	Georgia	275,866	3.83%

II. Disenfranchised Voters by State, 2010

Squares containing only the number 0 indicate that the state did not disenfranchise those population groups in 2010.

Since 2010 some states have changed their laws regarding felon disenfranchisement. For example, in 2011, Iowa rescinded automatic vote restoration for convicted felons who have completed their sentence.

For the current laws on felon voting in each state please see our chart on State Felon Voting Laws.

	State	Prisoners	Parolees	Felony Probation	Jail	Ex-Felons	Total	Voting Age Population	Percent Disenfranchised
1.	Alabama	31,1764	9,006	22,017	1,536	198,031	262,354	3,647,277	Alabama: 7.19%
2.	Alaska	5,597	2,089	6,959	7	0	14,652	522,853	Alaska: 2.80%
3.	Arizona	40,130	7,993	54,135	1,583	95,893	199,734	4,763,003	Arizona: 4.19%
4.	Arkansas	16,204	21,106	27,250	633	0	65,193	2,204,443	Arkansas: 2.96%
5.	California	165,062	105,133	0	8,282	0	278,477	27,958,916	California: 1.00%
6.	Colorado	22,815	11,014	0	1,370	0	35,199	3,808,587	Colorado: 0.93%
7.	Connecticut	19,321	2,894	0	0	0	22,215	2,757,082	Connecticut: 0.81%
8.	Delaware	6,598	560	4,448	0	14,032	25,638	692,169	Delaware: 3.70%
9.	Florida	104,306	4,093	103,318	6,525	1,323,360	1,541,602	14,799,219	Florida: 10.42%
10.	Georgia	491,64	25,091	197,013	4,597	0	275,866	7,196,101	Georgia: 3.83%
11.	Hawaii	5,912	0	0	0	0	5,912	1,056,484	Hawaii: 0.56%
12.	Idaho	7,431	3,957	13,721	386	0	25,495	1,138,510	Idaho: 2.24%
13.	Illinois	48,418	0	0	2,085	0	50,503	9,701,453	Illinois: 0.52%
14.	Indiana	28,028	0	0	1,255	0	29,283	4,875,504	Indiana: 0.60%
15.	Iowa	9,455	3,197	8,862	374	0	21,888	2,318,362	Iowa: 0.94%
16.	Kansas	9,051	5,063	3,704	691	0	18,509	2,126,179	Kansas: 0.87%
17.	Kentucky	20,544	14,628	25,688	1,998	180,984	243,842	3,315,996	Kentucky: 7.35%
18.	Louisiana	39,445	26,202	42,599	3,648	0	111,894	3,415,357	Louisiana: 3.28%
19.	Maine	0	0	0	0	0	0	1,053,828	Maine: 0.00%
20.	Maryland	22,645	13,195	26,164	1,584		63,588	4,420,588	Maryland: 1.44%
21.	Massachusetts	11,312	0	0	1,448	0	12,760	5,128,706	Massachusetts: 0.25%
22.	Michigan	44,113	0	0	1,820	0	45,933	7,539,572	Michigan: 0.61%
23.	Minnesota	9,796	5,807	42,661	962	0	59,226	4,019,862	Minnesota: 1.47%
24.	Mississippi	21,067	6,434	26,793	1,173	127,346	182,814	2,211,742	Mississippi: 8.27%
	State	Prisoners	Parolees	Felony Probation	Jail	Ex-Felons	Total	Voting Age Population	Percent Disenfranchised
25.	Missouri	30,623	19,421	54,916	1,064	0	106,024	4,563,491	Missouri: 2.32%
26.	Montana	3,716	0	0	230	0	3,946	765,852	Montana: 0.52%
27.	Nebraska	4,587	941	4,080	312	7819	17,739	1,367,120	Nebraska: 1.30%
28.	Nevada	12,653	4,964	8,067	717	59,919	86,321	2,035,543	Nevada: 4.24%
29.	New Hampshire	2,761	0	0	184	0	2,945	1,029,236	New_Hampshire:_0.29%
30.	New Jersey	25,007	15,563	57,517	2,289	0	100,376	6,726,680	New Jersey: 1.49%
31.	New Mexico	6,659	3,146	17,781	781	0	28,367	1,540,507	New Mexico: 1.84%
32.	New York	56,656	48,542	0	2,935	0	108,133	15,053,173	New York: 0.72%
33.	North Carolina	40,116	3,621	36,869	1,826	0	82,432	7,253,848	North Carolina: 1.14%
34.	North Dakota	1,487	0	0	97	0	1,584	522,720	North Dakota: 0.30%
35.	Ohio	51,712	0	0	2,130	0	53,842	8,805,753	Ohio: 0.61%
36.	Oklahoma	26,252	2,627	21,642	970	0	51,491	2,821,685	Oklahoma: 1.82%
37.	Oregon	14,014	0	0	683	0	14,679	2,964,621	Oregon: 0.50%
38.	Pennsylvania	51,264	0	0	3,608	0	54,872	9,910,224	Pennsylvania: 0.55%
39.	Rhode Island	3,357	0	0	0	0	3,357	828,611	Rhode Island: 0.41%
40.	South Carolina	23,578	6,412	11,739	1,427	0	43,156	3,544,890	South Carolina: 1.22%
41.	South Dakota	3,434	2,843	0	145	0	6,422	611,383	South Dakota: 1.05%
42.	Tennessee	27,451	12,157	52,178	2,221	247,808	341,815	4,850,104	Tennessee: 7.05%
43.	Texas	173,649	104,763	247,136	6,939	0	532,487	18,279,737	Texas: 2.91%
44.	Utah	6,807	0	0	672	0	7,479	1,892,858	Utah: 0.40%
45.	Vermont	0	0	0	0	0	0	496,508	Vermont: 0.00%
46.	Virginia	37,410	2,624	56,654	2,840	351,943	451,471	6,147,347	Virginia: 7.34%
47.	Washington	18,235	6,956	26,785	1,114	0	53,090	5,143,186	Washington: 1.03%
48.	West Virginia	6,681	1,796	6,876	288	0	15,640	1,465,576	West Virginia: 1.07%
49.	Wisconsin	22,724	19,572	22,602	1,361	0	66,259	4,347,494	Wisconsin: 1.52%
50.	Wyoming	2,112	682	3,236	157	19,470	25,657	428,224	Wyoming: 5.99%
	State	Prisoners	Parolees	Felony Probation	Jail	Ex-Felons	Total	Voting Age Population	Percent Disenfranchised

	US Totals:	1,391,123	524,092	1,233,412	76,949	2,626,604	5,852,180	234,564,071	2.50%

III. Disenfranchised Voters, 1960-2010

In 1960, the number of voters who were disenfranchised due to a felony conviction was 1,762,582. By the late 1970s this number dropped 33% to 1,176,234, but then began to rise.

By 2010 the number of people who lost the vote due to a felony conviction had grown to 5,852,180.

This graph was taken from The Sentencing Project's July 2012 report "State-Level Estimates of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States, 2010" (452KB)