1. 22.4% of America's 5.26 million disenfranchised felons live in Florida. 
    
2. Florida has the highest percentage of disenfranchised voters (9.01%) of any state. Delaware, at 7.54%, is second, and Alabama, at 7.37%, is third.
    
3. In 2005, the total U.S. prison population was 2,212,475 - larger than 15 U.S. states and large enough to qualify for five Electoral College votes if it constituted a state of its own.
    
4. In Maine and Vermont (and no other states) felons are permitted to vote while in prison.
    
5. Five states disenfranchise people convicted of certain misdemeanors - Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, South Carolina, and Maryland.
    
6. For a convicted felon to vote in Mississippi, his or her state representative must personally author a bill reenfranchising that individual. Both houses of the legislature must then pass the bill. Re-enfranchisement can also be granted directly by the governor.
    
7. 1 in 4 jail inmates in 2002 were incarcerated for a drug offense, compared to 1 in 10 in 1983.
    
8. In 2002, the U.S. Senate voted 63-31 against legislation that would have restored voting rights to ex-felons voting in federal elections.
    
9. Per 100,000 male members of each race, 465 Whites, 1,231 Hispanics, and 3,405 Blacks were sentenced to prison in 2003.
    
10. In 2004, the Alabama Republican Party Chair stated that the party was "opposed to [restoring voting rights] because felons don't tend to vote Republican."
     
11. In medieval Germany [1200s-1500s] convicted criminals lost their ability to vote, had their property confiscated, and had to go "live in the forest."
     

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Last updated on: 4/13/2009 11:14 AM PST