Opinion: With Elections Looming, Texas Should Expand the Right to Vote

As we look ahead to the 2024 elections, Texas residents should know that our state currently denies the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of our own citizens because of their history with the criminal legal system. An estimated 2.5% of Texas’ voting-age population is banned from voting due to a felony conviction.

This is a shocking affront to our democracy – one that I’ve experienced firsthand.

I have spent approximately 21 years of my life incarcerated. Over the decades, I have learned from my missteps and sought to change my thoughts about myself and my community. Today, I am grateful to be free of confinement.

Unfortunately, I am still considered “less than” a citizen because the state of Texas will not allow me to vote for another 26 years while I remain on parole.

If I live to see that day, I will be 81 years old when I can cast my ballot.

This is an injustice to my dignity and humanity as a human being and a citizen of America. It is a contradiction of the ideals that we were raised on as American citizens.

What message does disenfranchisement send to me and other people throughout Texas? That despite having kids in school, despite paying taxes, despite being members of our communities, that our voice no longer matters? Do we believe in second chances or rehabilitation, or are these mere words with no substance to them?

We can do better here in Texas.

The laws that deny voting rights to people due to a felony conviction or due to their incarceration status have no place in modern America. These laws have their roots in racist Jim Crow laws that sought to suppress the Black vote.

Don’t just take my word for it. In an 1897 speech at the National Prison Congress, George T. Winston, then-president of the University of Texas, argued that “to protect their property and civilization,” the “Southern white population” would need to incarcerate more Black Americans.

It’s long past time for Texas to do more to protect and expand the right to vote to people who have a history with the criminal legal system. We should be immensely troubled by the idea that the government can take away one group of citizens’ right to vote. If the government can take away one person or group’s right to vote, it was never a “right” to begin with, rather it was something less than a right.

Expanding voting rights should not be a partisan issue for Texas legislators. It’s an effective policy that promotes community safety. Allowing people to vote – regardless of their involvement with the criminal legal system – prepares them for more successful reentry into their communities. That makes all of us safer. And that should be what public safety is all about.

Other states have taken note. Nebraska just passed Legislative Bill 20, which will eliminate the two years eligible residents who complete felony sentences must wait before registering to vote. It will restore voting rights to over 7,000 Nebraskans. Whether two years, four years, or more, to delay is to deny.

In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed House Bill 4983 into law, which automatically registers people to vote upon their release from prison. Minnesota overturned the ban on voting rights for anyone on felony probation and parole, restoring the rights of over 46,000 Minnesotans. The New Mexico Voting Rights Act restored voting rights to over 11,000 citizens who were completing their felony sentence on probation or parole.

It’s time for Texas to catch up to the rest of the country and expand the freedom to vote to every individual – regardless of their history with the criminal legal system.

To this day, I carry my last voter registration card with me as a reminder of the last time I had a say in my representation and the policies that govern my life. While I am currently unable to vote in the state of Texas, I will continue to fight until every individual in Texas regains the right to vote.

I encourage others to join me in this fight.

Robert Lilly is a participatory defense organizer with Grassroots Leadership in Austin. He was formerly incarcerated for approximately 21 years.