LISTEN: It’s a common misconception that people found guilty of a felony permanently lose their right to vote. But hundreds of thousands of Georgians with a past conviction are eligible, and organizers are spreading the word. GPB's Amanda Andrews reports.

Ann Colloton and Dominique Harris work on outreach to spread the word that people who have a felony conviction in their past may be eligible to vote.

Ann Colloton and Dominique Harris work on outreach at the Georgia Justice Project to spread the word that people who have a felony conviction in their past may be eligible to vote.

Credit: Amanda Andrews / GPB News

Organizers from Atlanta and Augusta pose for a group picture before canvassing in Augusta to register voters.

Organizers from Atlanta and Augusta pose for a group picture before canvassing in Augusta to register voters.

Credit: Amanda Andrews / GPB News

Ikethia Daniels signs the back of another canvassers shirt asking people to vote in her honor.

Ikethia Daniels signs the back of another canvassers shirt asking people to vote in her honor.

Credit: Amanda Andrews / GPB News

Kareemah Hanifa places a flier in the door of a house in Augusta as part of the vote in my honor canvassing effort.

Kareemah Hanifa places a flier in the door of a house in Augusta as part of the vote in my honor canvassing effort.

Credit: Amanda Andrews / GPB News

Canvassers with IMAN Atlanta place a yard sign in front of a church in Augusta.

Canvassers with IMAN Atlanta place a yard sign in front of a church in Augusta.

Credit: Amanda Andrews / GPB News

Organizers from across Georgia rallied in Augusta in September as part of a canvassing effort to register voters spread the message: If you have completed your felony sentence, you can register to vote.

Leaders from the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, ReNForce, and Going Back 2 Give Back are working on the “Vote In My Honor” campaign. It’s a project to register voters and change policy led by people who have been incarcerated and had their voting rights revoked.

Kareemah Hanifa is a lead organizer at IMAN Atlanta. She said the work of registering voters, particularly those who have been convicted of a felony in the past, is especially important with Georgia being a swing state. 

“I know that if my people — when I say "my people," those that are directly impacted by the criminal justice system — get out and vote, that we can be so powerful and have such a strong impact in community,” Hanifa said.

Across the state, 1 in 18 people are under correctional supervision and can’t vote. Hanifa is one of hundreds of thousands of Georgians who has had her right to vote taken away after going to prison. 

"This does not feel like work to me,” she said. “This just feels like me loving on my people and me empowering my people and supporting my people and me encouraging my people.”

Hanifa is facing something called felony voter disenfranchisement. It’s the part of Georgia law that says a person cannot vote until they’re out of prison, off probation and off parole.

The law seems simple, but the Georgia Department of Community Supervision reports the state has the longest average probation in the country. Sentences average around seven years, which is double the national average.

Ann Colloton is a policy and outreach coordinator with the Georgia Justice Project. 

“We're No. 1 in probation, No. 4 in incarceration,” she said. “So it is not our crime rate that drives our felony disenfranchisement. It is our response to crime.”

In 2021, advocates with the Georgia Justice Project went to the state capitol to support Senate Bill 105 that would qualify some Georgians to end their probation after three years. GJP Outreach Associate Dominique Harris said the bill, which passed in 2021, has had a real impact.

“Prior to that, you had to do all your time on probation,” he said. “Since 2021, we've got roughly around 20,000 people's probation terminated out of the 175,000. So that's a sense of hope.”

Hope is important for people after incarceration. Harris said when he was navigating his return from prison he wasn’t thinking about elections.

“Basic needs are the first requirement: food, shelter, clothing, things like that,” Harris said. “So why would I think about voting? Okay, well, voting is the reason your food, shelter, clothing is so hard to attain — why these barriers are here. I didn't know that.”

Harris said now he brings a unique perspective.

“You fought the system, so you know the ins and outs of the system,” he said. “So that person has to be empowered because his voice is more important than really a lot of people, because he's been through every part of that.”

Back in Augusta, organizer Ikethia Daniels was still going door to door to share her story. After 12 years in prison and eight on parole, she is still waiting to be able to vote.

She said educating others makes her feel like she has a voice in politics.

“You don't want to order off the menu. Are you willing to eat whatever we get, you know, in office,” Daniels said. “That starts from below all the way to the top. You know, every vote counts.”

The deadline to register to vote in this year's election in Georgia is Monday, Oct. 7.

Tags: Georgia Politics  Georgia  Augusta  Incarceration  Voting Rights  voting