The Colorado constitution bars prisoners from voting while they’re in prison… but only while they’re in prison. So why does a state law keep those on parole from voting as well?
DENVER — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Thursday challenging a state law barring thousands of people on parole from voting or registering to vote.
Norman Mueller, a volunteer attorney, said the statute violates the state constitution, which he said bars prisoners from voting only if they are in prison.
“The Colorado Supreme Court has said in several cases that when prisoners are released on parole, they have completed their term of imprisonment,” Mueller said.
The class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of an estimated 6,000 people in Colorado who are on parole.
Under Colorado law, felons are allowed to vote only if they are no longer in prison and are not on parole. Last year, Secretary of State Donetta Davidson discovered 6,352 possible voter registration matches for felons, and county clerks were ordered to check the rolls for felons and flag them for poll judges.
Mueller said nationwide, as many as 5 million Americans are barred from voting by a variety of state laws that forbid convicted felons from voting for varying periods of time. Felons are kept from voting in every state but Maine and Vermont, though restrictions vary.
Mueller said this case would only affect Colorado voters.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Florida’s lifetime ban on voting rights for convicted felons, another case that could have had national implications for millions of would-be voters. Florida attorneys argued that states have authority to set their own policies.
Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, a Democrat from Golden and a former county clerk, said if people have served their time, their voting rights should be reinstated.
“I think the ACLU is correct,” she said.
House Minority Leader Joe Stengel, R-Littleton, disagreed.
“The right to vote is not an absolute right. It is subject to some restrictions. Obviously, serving time in prison and on parole is a restriction,” Stengel said.