Last updated on: 10/4/2017 10:57:33 AM PST

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

State Felon Disenfranchisement Totals, 2016

In 2016 an estimated 6.1 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 of 4.2% from the 2010 total of 5.85 million and the highest number since at least 1960.

7.44% of African Americans in the United States could not vote due to a felony conviction in 2016. In Kentucky 26.15% of African Americans were disenfranchised - the highest percentage in all US states. Florida had the highest total (1,686,318) and per capita (10.43%) disenfranchised population of all US states.

Top 10 states with the highest levels of disenfranchisement
Disenfranchised voters for each state
Disenfranchisement from 1960-2016

All data were taken from The Sentencing Project's Oct. 2016 report "6 Million Lost Voters: State-Level Estimates of Felony Disenfranchisement, 2016" by Christopher Uggen, Ryan Larson, and Sarah Shannon.

Top 10 States with the Highest % of Disenfranchised Voters, 2016

Rank	State	Total Disenfranchised	Percent Disenfranchised
1	Florida	1,686,318	10.43%
2	Mississippi	218,181	9.63%
3	Kentucky	312,046	9.14%
4	Tennessee	421,227	8.26%
5	Virginia	508,680	7.81%
6	Alabama	286,266	7.62%
7	Wyoming	23,847	5.33%
8	Arizona	221,170	4.25%
9	Nevada	89,267	4.02%
10	Georgia	248,751	3.23%

Disenfranchised Voters by State, 2016

Squares containing only the number 0 indicate that the state did not disenfranchise those population groups in 2016.

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	Post-Sentence	Total	Voting Age Population	Percent
Alabama	30,585	6,580	15,626	1,578	231,896	286,266	3,755,483	7.62%
Alaska	5,497	2,035	6,900	7	0	14,439	552,166	2.61%
Arizona	44,509	7,241	51,362	1,341	116,717	221,170	5,205,215	4.25%
Arkansas	19,224	21,811	24,695	975	0	66,705	2,272,904	2.93%
California	136,302	86,254	0	0	0	222,557	30,023,902	0.74%
Colorado	21,207	8,673	0	1,066	0	30,946	4,199,509	0.74%
Connecticut	14,926	2,419	0	0	0	17,345	2,826,827	0.61%
Delaware	6,858	716	4,074	0	4,067	15,716	741,548	2.12%
Florida	102,555	4,208	86,886	4,822	1,487,847	1,686,318	16,166,143	10.43%
Georgia	50,900	23,545	170,194	4,112	0	248,751	7,710,688	3.23%
Hawaii	6,364	0	0	0	0	6,364	1,120,770	0.57%
Idaho	7,873	5,057	9,863	314	0	23,106	1,222,093	1.89%
Illinois	47,537	0	0	2,089	0	49,625	9,901,322	0.50%
Iowa	9,127	6,133	12,365	410	23,976	52,012	2,395,103	2.17%
Indiana	28,028	0	0	1,630	0	29,658	5,040,224	0.59%
Kansas	9,466	4,023	3,426	679	0	17,594	2,192,084	0.80%
Kentucky	22,968	16,729	27,323	2,039	242,987	312,046	3,413,425	9.14%
Louisiana	35,614	31,450	37,761	3,211	0	108,035	3,555,911	3.04%
Maine	0	0	0	0	0	0	1,072,948	0.00%
Maryland	20,378	0	0	1,087	0	21,465	4,658,175	0.46%
Massachusetts	10,254	0	0	921	0	11,176	5,407,335	0.21%
Michigan	42,661	0	0	1,560	0	44,221	7,715,272	0.57%
Minnesota	11,369	8,148	43,215	608	0	63,340	4,205,207	1.51%
Mississippi	13,752	8,051	28,463	1,422	166,494	218,181	2,265,485	9.63%
Missouri	32,768	16,808	38,870	1,219	0	89,665	4,692,196	1.91%
Montana	3,816	0	0	330	0	4,146	806,529	0.51%
North Carolina	37,446	10,977	40,867	1,888	0	91,179	7,752,234	1.18%
North Dakota	2,042	0	0	136	0	2,178	583,001	0.37%
Nebraska	6,377	782	2,952	384	7,069	17,564	1,425,853	1.23%
Nevada	11,560	6,828	8,097	701	62,080	89,267	2,221,681	4.02%
New Hampshire	2,856	0	0	175	0	3,031	1,066,610	0.28%
New Jersey	19,964	14,831	58,123	1,396	0	94,315	6,959,192	1.36%
New Mexico	7,205	2,838	13,352	891	0	24,286	1,588,201	1.53%
New York	50,513	44,590	0	2,477	0	97,581	15,584,974	0.63%
Ohio	51,102	0	0	1,736	0	52,837	8,984,946	0.59%
Oklahoma	27,857	2,572	26,475	1,398	0	58,302	2,950,017	1.98%
Oregon	14,228	0	0	519	0	14,748	3,166,121	0.47%
Pennsylvania	49,269	0	0	3,705	0	52,974	10,112,229	0.52%
Rhode Island	3,355	0	0	0	0	3,355	845,254	0.40%
South Carolina	20,141	4,621	21,464	1,011	0	47,238	3,804,558	1.24%
South Dakota	3,464	2,643	4,114	170	0	10,392	647,145	1.61%
Tennessee	29,271	13,186	52,654	2,763	323,354	421,227	5,102,688	8.26%
Texas	161,658	111,632	216,033	6,605	0	495,928	20,257,343	2.45%
Utah	6,925	0	0	744	0	7,669	2,083,423	0.37%
Vermont	0	0	0	0	0	0	506,119	0.00%
Virginia	38,694	1,604	56,908	2,905	408,570	508,680	6,512,571	7.81%
Washington	18,395	3,811	25,164	1,182	0	48,552	5,558,509	0.87%
West Virginia	7,042	3,187	4,109	389	0	14,727	1,464,532	1.01%
Wisconsin	22,851	19,537	22,101	1,118	0	65,606	4,476,711	1.47%
Wyoming	2,536	607	3,148	141	17,414	23,847	447,212	5.33%
US TOTALS:	1,329,288	504,127	1,116,585	63,855	3,092,471	6,106,327	247,219,588	2.47%

Disenfranchised Voters, 1960-2016

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 2016 the number of people who lost the vote due to a felony conviction had grown to 6,106,327.

People who view this page may also like: