Expanding Voter Registration in California and Illinois Jails

in california, a bill - assembly bill 3115 - to increase voter education in jails recently cleared the senate public safety committee. 

the bill requires jails to partner with at least one organization to provide "both written and verbal information about voting rights upon release from jail, providing affidavits of registration to eligible voters with the completion of the affidavits of registration, and assisting eligible voters in returning the completed voter registration cards to the county election official."

illinois governor bruce rauner is expected to sign a bill requiring every jail in the state to provide voter education and make in-person or absentee voting available to all eligible incarcerated voters.

only eight counties in the state have any voting process for people in pretrial detention. "there is confusion around how election code actually applies to the jail," says jen dean, who runs cook county jail votes, the group who helps facilitate registration and voting in the largest jail in the country. den says, "this bill creates a system of uniformity across the state to make sure there are systems in place so that everybody has access to the ballot."