Incarcerated Californians can’t vote. A prison held an election anyway

An estimated 4 million US citizens are barred from voting because they have a felony conviction. That includes most Americans serving prison sentences.

But last week at San Quentin, the 172-year-old prison in the San Francisco Bay Area, residents had a rare opportunity to weigh in on a US election where so much is on the line.

As incarcerated residents jogged on the yard and played pickleball, dozens stopped by the prison's education department and slid paper ballots into a locked metal box with an American flag and the word "vote" painted on it.

The voters were participating in a mock election, organized by Juan Moreno Haines, a journalist incarcerated at San Quentin, and Mount Tamalpais College (MTC), a liberal arts institution based at the prison.

"It's important for me to have a voice, especially if it's being heard on the outside," said Michael Scott, 45, who is due to be released next year after having been incarcerated for more than two decades, before casting his vote.

California, like most US states, prohibits incarcerated people with felonies from voting, affecting more than 90,000 people in state prisons. The US is a global leader in its incarceration rate and an outlier in its sweeping disenfranchisement; a recent report identified more than 70 countries with no or very few restrictions on voting based on criminal records. Roughly 1.7% of the US voting-age population can't vote, with Black Americans disproportionately excluded and restrictions potentially affecting election results.

For San Quentin's election, MTC, which recently became the first US accredited college exclusively operating behind bars, directed incarcerated students in its American government class to design ballots, choosing which races and initiatives to poll.