While news of increased voter participation continues to filter in following yesterday's "Super Tuesday" series of primaries, voter registration is way up for a demographic rarely considered for its civic engagement: prison inmates. In both Los Angeles and San Francisco County jails the number of prisoners voting by absentee ballot is considerably higher than either the 2006 or 2004 election cycles.
In LA County alone, at least 917 inmates had registered to vote. This compares with the 16 prisoners who registered in 2006 and 121 who did so in the last presidential election year: 2004. Much of the work in growing these registration figures is being carried out by the ACLU. County Sheriff's spokesman, Steve Whitmore said, "people have the legal right to vote if they [have not been convicted] and have no prior felony convictions. We look at it as part of the process, part of the inmate services we provide."
Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jailvote6feb06,1,7855213.story
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