Ryan Larson, assistant professor in the criminal justice and forensic science department, Molly Hauf, ’24 (Criminology & Criminal Justice and Spanish double major), and Olivia Nesgoda (senior Legal Studies major) have co-authored a new research report entitled “Locked Out 2024” published by The Sentencing Project. This report is a continuation of previous Locked Out reports that details the scope of felony disenfranchisement policies in the United States, and uses demographic methods to estimate the number of individuals disenfranchised as of election day 2024.
The report finds that 4 million Americans are denied the right to vote due to a felony-level criminal record as of election day 2024, which comprises 1.7% of the voting eligible population in America. Given extant racial disparities in punishment, felony disenfranchisement policies have a racialized impact where the rate for African Americans is 4.5%, more than triple that for non-African Americans. 7 out of every 10 individuals disenfranchised in the United States are living in their communities, having fully completed their sentences or remaining supervised while on felony probation or parole.
The report is also the first to estimate the impact of felony disenfranchisement by gender. Dr. Larson and Molly Hauf, as part of Hamline’s Summer Collaborative Undergraduate Program, developed the methodology for the gender-estimates included in the report, estimating that approximately 764,000 women are disenfranchised, comprising about 0.6% of the female voting eligible population and approximately one-fifth of the total disenfranchised population. We estimate that approximately 3.2 million men or 2.7% of the male voting eligible population is disenfranchised, consistent with the overrepresentation of men in the criminal legal system.
“In this historic election year, questions persist about the stability of democratic institutions, election fairness, and voter suppression in marginalized communities. The systematic exclusion of millions with felony convictions should be front and center in these debates.”
