Voting rights for felons: An analysis of felon voting rights restoration laws in Illinois and New York and the factors that affect an elections official's willingness or reluctance to implement the law

Abstract

This research examines the roles that race and political party affiliation play in an elections official's knowledge of voting rights restoration for felons in Illinois. Felon disenfranchisement as public policy traces a path from pre-modem society to present day and has become a viable issue as the numbers of those incarcerated and denied voting rights has increased. This research proposes to determine if felon disenfranchisement as public policy is prevalent in Illinois, a state that grants franchise to felons after release from Department of Corrections custody or if, as the academic and scholarly literature proposes, it is so entrenched in American culture that even when statute allows for restoration, an elections official's bias still presents a barrier. This research concludes that in Illinois counties with larger populations of African Americans, elections officials are more likely to be cognizant of felon voting rights restoration statutes then are elections officials in counties with smaller African American populations. Additionally, this research concludes that the party affiliation of the elections official has an impact on that elections official's knowledge of voting rights restoration for felons.

Date of Award	2008
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	Eastern Illinois University
Supervisor	Karen B. Swenson (Supervisor)