Demos: Attorney General Eric Holder Makes the Case for Restoring the Vote to People with Past Convictions

NEW YORK—Today, Demos released the following statement applauding Attorney General Eric Holder’s support for restoring the voting rights of people with past felony convictions.  Holder spoke at Georgetown University Law Center  in Washington, D.C., saying “It is time to fundamentally reconsider laws that permanently disenfranchise people who are no longer under federal or state supervision.”

Demos’ Vice President of Legal Strategies, Brenda Wright, said this of the news:

"Attorney General Holder has powerfully stated the case for restoring the right to vote to persons with past convictions. Permanently excluding persons from the vote, even long after they have completed their sentences, is profoundly at odds with our democratic principles and counterproductive to the goals of re-entry and rehabilitation.  We hope that the Attorney General's statement will build momentum for changing the outdated policies that currently disenfranchise some 5.8 million Americans.”

For more, contact: Alex Amend, [email protected], 917-822-7405

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