Sentencing Project

Mike Clemente, 26, had been on probation for 8 years-- so many years that he assumed he lost his right to the franchise, until Melissa Lavoie, Yale Class of 2012, registered him to vote.

By the end of the day, Lavoie, a representative of “Unlock the Vote” --the New Haven Re-Entry Initiative’s campaign to register former prisoners in the city-- had registered 53 people with felony convictions: white, African American and Hispanic individuals — men and women.

According to The Sentencing Project report, State-Level Estimates of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States, 2010, Connecticut is one of only 19 states that allows individuals on probation to vote. Only in Maine and Vermont are inmates granted the right to vote, and laws in four states — Iowa, Florida, Kentucky, and Virginia — enforce permanent disenfranchisement for anyone convicted of felonies