Support for Illinois Senate Bill 828: Voting in Prison

As Veterans Day approaches, J. Cunyon Gordon, Senior Counsel at Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, shared the below statement in support of Illinois Senate Bill 828, a bill that would re-enfranchise community members in Illinois who are incarcerated in prison. SB 828 is a crucial step to advancing racial equity in Illinois. Thank you for your service, Cunyon, and for supporting the restoration of voting rights.

From 1977 until 1988, I served first as a junior officer and then as a judge advocate in the United States Navy.  From those eleven years of military service, some of the occasions I remember most vividly were during election season.  As soon as we received word in our command that absentee ballots from all 50 states and the territories were available, servicemembers stationed away from their home states would eagerly submit requests for ballots and just as eagerly mail them off to be counted. The chatter about the issues and the candidates was spirited and intense. I found that the women and men I served with considered casting their vote to be a central part of their identity as citizens. Being away from home intensified the need and desire for that connection to the democracy they were sworn to protect. 

Many veterans have difficulty adjusting to life after their military service and find themselves on the wrong side of the criminal justice system. That some end up serving time in prison does not diminish their strong sense of citizenship, their need to belong to a community, or the right to keep their elected officials accountable to them, considering policies that affect them. Restoring the right to vote soon after conviction would go a long way toward keeping incarcerated veterans engaged in the democracy they fought to protect and preparing them for their eventual return to civic life. 

I think SB 828 is a terrific and necessary bill, and I wholeheartedly support its passage. We owe that much to our veterans.