Communications specialist Tony Papa created this painting, "Vote," while serving 12 years of his 15-to-life sentence at Sing-Sing under New York's draconian Rockefeller drug laws.

29 October 2008 UPDATE:The Ordinary People’s Society (TOPS), DPA Network’s partner organization on the ground in Alabama, settled a lawsuit on voting rights with the Alabama Department of Corrections, and our historic voter education effort is proceeding in Alabama prisons. TOPS co-founder and executive director Reverend Glasgow has resumed his non-partisan ministry to inform eligible voters currently incarcerated of their rights. Alabama joins only Vermont and Maine in allowing certain people to vote while incarcerated in state prisons. The lawsuit was filed after the Alabama Department of Corrections canceled Reverend Glasgow’s ministry following the Alabama Republican Party’s objection to his voter education activities. NAACP Legal Defense Fund, under Ryan Haygood, acted as counsel for TOPS in the lawsuit.

On Election Day, people across the country will miss out on casting a ballot because they don't even know they're eligible to vote. Earlier this month in Alabama, we began working to repair the democratic process with a groundbreaking voter registration project being conducted in partnership with TOPS.

The Alabama Constitution protects the right to vote for people convicted of nonviolent, low-level drug crimes but most of the 70,000 people in the Alabama criminal justice system who fall into this category have never been told they can vote. Even when they do know they're eligible, they have no easy access to the ballot box -- and as many as 10,000 eligible voters are currently incarcerated in Alabama's overcrowded prisons.

TOPS is going into prisons to register voters this fall, working to remedy this egregious example of how the war on drugs undermines our democracy. The group, however, is encountering strong Republican opposition. Two days after we began this historic voter registration drive, the Alabama Republican Party responded with a letter emailed to the Corrections Commission strongly opposing our efforts. In it, Party Chairman Mike Hubbard wrote, “I have concerns about potential issues with how this effort is being monitored to ensure no form of voter fraud occurs." He explained that the party supports voter registration in general, but not for prisoners, and asked Allen to outline the prison system's plans for preventing fraud.

Rev. Kenneth Glasgow plans to register as many eligible voters as possible inside Alabama prisons, and challenged Hubbard’s statement. "I think they're more worried about me being a Democrat than anything," said Glasgow, whose half-brother is noted Democrat activist Rev. Al Sharpton. Rev. Glasgow continued, “voter registration drives are an essential part of our democracy. This action by the GOP and the Department of Corrections smacks of voter intimidation. Our focus isn't politics, it’s restoration.” TOPS will return to jails and prisons in the coming weeks to make sure inmates mail in absentee forms, continuing a project advancing human rights and preparing prisoners to return to society. Alabama is just one example among many. More than five million people nationwide are disfranchised for all kinds of offenses, with nonviolent drug convictions making up a significant portion of that group. In some states, anyone with a felony conviction is barred from ever voting again -- even once their debt to society is fully paid. In many other states, the process of restoring your right to vote after a felony conviction is so wrapped in red tape that even the most determined would-be voter gets stuck.

Not only that, but widespread misconceptions keep eligible potential voters from ever even trying to register. For example, in New York state, a survey conducted by a voting rights organization found that many county registrars in New York believed that people who had been arrested -- not convicted, just arrested -- could not vote. Among arrestees themselves, an even greater percentage believed the same thing!

The historic work DPAN and TOPS are doing in Alabama paves the way to address larger questions about the intersection between voting rights and the criminal justice system. One of these questions takes on particular relevance given the close results of recent elections: Nationally, how many potential votes are lost because of draconian penalties for nonviolent drug offenses?

As we begin this conversation nationwide, the Drug Policy Alliance Network is excited to be part of Alabama efforts in advance of a presidential election that is projected to have very high voter turnout. We have a long way to go to restore democracy to our criminal justice system but we’re proud that Alabamians who didn't even know they could vote will be part of the large numbers of Americans who cast a ballot this Election Day. You can join us by supporting this historic work with a donation to DPA Network.