More than 6 million Americans are barred from voting due to Jim Crow-era laws that strip citizens' voting rights following a felony conviction. Nearly all states have mechanisms in place amounting to civil death sentences for those who served their time and were released back into society, but remain oppressed by a system that refuses to abolish Civil War-era policies. Florida is home to a quarter of the voting-revoked population, with nearly 1.7 million former offenders stripped of their rights. It’s one of the rare barriers to voting that intersects with America’s broken criminal justice system—a system that disproportionately incarcerates black and brown citizens at higher rates than whites. As a result, one in 13 disenfranchised voters are black. Meanwhile, efforts are underway across the country to do away with these discriminatory laws, which literally prevent millions of U.S. citizens from exercising their right to participate in the democratic process.

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News Beat Executive Producer is Jed Morey Editor in Chief: Christopher TwarowskiManaging Editor: Rashed MianCover Art Design: Jeff Main