Voting and Trust in Elections Among System-Impacted Populations

Historically, felon disenfranchisement laws have prohibited millions of people with criminal records from voting in elections. Since 1997, however, many states restored the right to vote for individuals with felony convictions. Despite these reforms, people with criminal records and their communities continue to vote at very low rates, a reflection of administrative burdens, lack of information, and challenges for outreach. Sociologist Naomi Sugie and political scientist Emily Rong Zhang will investigate how to best motivate electoral participation among criminal court-impacted populations. They will analyze focus groups, interviews, survey experiments, and randomized controlled trials conducted during the 2022 and 2024 elections in collaboration with the nonprofit Alliance for Safety and Justice for their study.