Houston Justice is starting the 2020 off registering new voters behind bars, and training folks to help us do it! In this blog we'll talk about how people can vote behind bars, how we're making this work happen, and how YOU can help.
20 Volunteers registered 264 voters on January 11, 2020.
This year is slated to be a huge election year, and it’s our goal to register as many eligible voters as possible. Starting in 2017, Houston Justice launched #ProjectOrange, an ambitious, non-partisan initiative aimed at bringing voting rights to eligible voters who happen to be temporarily incarcerated at the Harris County Jail, the largest jail in the state.
According to jail population reports from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, about 57 percent of defendants in Bexar and Tarrant county jails haven't been convicted of a crime. In Harris County that number is 70 percent (Dallas County, meanwhile, has an even higher pre-trial detention rate of about 74 percent).
With a staggering population capacity of 10,000 that means upwards of 7,000 eligible voters could be behind bars on any given day.
But how?
Steven Marzoula, Krishnaveni Gundu, and Tina Kingshill went cell to cell notifying inmates of the upcoming registration dates and their rights around registrants.
Well, the current bail system is set up in such a way that a ticket for driving without insurance turns into a warrant. Then, when the driver gets pulled over for a tail light that's out, he/she gets taken to jail. In some cases, this person spends a night in jail, but in many other cases this person is held behind bars until they pay their bond to get released. But, someone who couldn't afford the insurance or the ticket, probably can't afford to bond out either. So, they end up behind bars for days, weeks, or months at a time depending on their charge.
Just because this person is behind bars does not mean that they have given up their right to vote.
So long as you are a US Citizen over the age of 18 and "off paper" (off parole or probation), you can vote.
Even if you've served your time for a felony.
In addition to the work we do at the jail, we’re planning events across our city aimed at increasing voter turnout in a meaningful, non-partisan way.
So, in the weeks leading up to each voter registration deadline, we recruit volunteers who have to go through a background check, then we go from pod to pod, cell to cell, registering eligible voters. We don’t care who you vote for, just that everyone has access to the ballot.
If you'd like to learn more about our work, or volunteer, email ddouglas@houstonjustice.org or tinakingshill@gmail.com for more information.