SPOKANE, Wash — Thousands of Washingtonians are casting their ballots ahead of Tuesday's election, including an untold number of people who have completed prison sentences.
Since January 2022, any Washingtonian otherwise eligible to vote had that right restored automatically after release from prison.
"People who've been impacted by the criminal/legal system are the most impacted by who's in office," said Anthony Blankenship, part of the leadership team with Free the Vote Washington.
The statewide coalition pushed for more than two years to get the bill passed in the legislature, which it finally did in 2021, taking effect the next year.
Since then, advocates have been in the thick of education inside and outside correctional facilities.
In Spokane, Kurtis Robinson with the Revive Center for Returning Citizens has helped register hundreds of formerly incarcerated people in the last two years.
"I was just doing a quick number crunch and I stopped counting at over 300," Robinson said. "So we're definitely making an impact."
Right now, Blankenship says there aren't estimates on how many former inmates have registered statewide. Free the Vote estimates more than 20,000 people had their right automatically restored upon passage of the law, though Blankenship says the true number is harder to quantify. To start, there are more than two million people with criminal records in Washington state, many of whom may not have realized they can now vote.
"Those numbers are changing, because there are people getting out every single day," Blankenship added. "It shifts from day to day of who counts as someone who would have been affected by this."
Community programs like the Revive Center and registrations inside corrections centers, with the help of the Department of Corrections and other groups, are reaching some people.
Though it's taking time to help some former inmates understand the recent change.
"It's been slow going," Blankenship said. "This is something that for a very long time, people have not believed they've had the right to vote."
"Even though we're telling them their right to vote has been restored, they have a hard time believing it," Robinson said.
Though Robinson says the truly unquantifiable thing is the positive impact this can have on the success of re-entry. He says they're beginning to study how returning voting rights, and with them returning voices and social engagement to returning citizens, can impact recidivism rates. He guesses there's a positive impact.
"Because the importance of social engagement and social connection is critical to successful reentry. It's a foundational piece of healthy successful reentry," Robinson said. "The hope that is embedded in that engagement, you can't put a price on that."
Free the Vote Washington is now looking at more legislation, which would restore the voting rights of people currently in prison. Right now, anyone convicted of a misdemeanor or awaiting felony sentencing can vote from jail. Blankenship believes this newest step could be introduced next year.
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