Welcome Home—Now Vote! Voting Rights Restoration and Postsupervision Participation

Kevin Morris

Social Science Quarterly, 2021, vol. 102, issue 1, 140-153

Abstract: Objective Past research demonstrates that formerly incarcerated individuals turn out at very low rates. Executive Order 181 in New York State allows us to test whether restoring voting rights at an in‐person meeting while an individual is still on parole can increase their postsupervision registration and turnout. Methods By linking administrative parole records with the registered voter file I estimate individual‐level turnout. I use an interrupted time series and a two‐stage least squares approach to estimate the causal effect of Executive Order 181 on postsupervision participation. Results I find that Executive Order 181 increased postsupervision registration and turnout for individuals discharged from parole as a whole; these results, however, mask racial heterogeneity. Although the participation of nonblack individuals increased substantially, the treatment effect for black individuals was either much smaller or nonexistent. Conclusion State policy can meaningfully increase the political participation of individuals even after they are no longer on parole. However, at least in the case of New York State, rights restoration prior to parole discharge appears less effective for black individuals who make up roughly 40 percent of the formerly incarcerated population.

Date: 2021
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