AUSTIN, TX – State Representative Senfronia Thompson filed House Bill 1419 to restore voting rights to nearly 200,000 Texas citizens who are living, working, paying taxes in Texas communities. The legislation will bring Texas in line with 14 other states that restore voting rights to people with felony convictions who have completed their term of incarceration and have been released back to the community.

“Civic engagement goes to the heart of restoring someone to the community,” said Chairwoman Thompson. “People with felony convictions who are living and working in our communities must take responsibility for making our communities stronger, which means participating in our democracy.”

State laws related to the restoration of voting rights for people with felony convictions vary widely. Some states do not remove the right to vote after a felony conviction, while others, like Texas, restore rights only after people have fully completed their term of probation or parole. Eleven states remove the right to vote from every person with a criminal conviction, even after a person has completed his or her full sentence.

HB 1419 will bring Texas in line with those states that recognize the importance of civic engagement and social responsibility. Darwin Hamilton, who served time in Texas’ corrections system and currently sits on the Board for Grassroots Leadership in Austin, has volunteered on local reentry projects and fights to remove barriers to employment, housing, and occupational licensing; however, his system involvement has posed its own challenges. “I knew that I had a responsibility to educate elected officials about how reentry barriers hurt our communities, but it was easy for them to dismiss me because I didn’t yet have the right to vote.” In effect, Texas’ current laws minimize people’s ability to advocate for improvements in their own neighborhoods.

Restoration of voting rights will address this issue, while also redressing the over-incarceration of people of color in Texas jails and prisons. Despite representing only 12 percent of Texas’ population, African Americans represent 34 percent of people sent to state prison. People of color must have the right to address the conditions and circumstances that lead to over-incarceration.

“Far too many of my friends and neighbors wound up doing time in prison,” said Lewis Conway, a community leader and Executive Founder of Vote With Conviction. “I had to look at what was going on in my community, and I realized that our schools were failing, too many people were living near the poverty line, and we had little access to health care. These things aren’t going to fix themselves, and we need the right to appeal to lawmakers for change.”

Restoring voting rights to people who have completed their term of incarceration is vital to community health and safety, and to the state’s economy. The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition thanks Representative Thompson for being a voice for those who do not have a voice in our democracy.