According to a Daily Beast report, a record 5.85 million convicted felons aren’t allowed to vote, according to a report out today (
PDF) by The Sentencing Project, a criminal justice research and advocacy group. That’s about 500,000 more than were disenfranchised in 2004—and potentially enough to decide this year’s tightly-contested presidential election.
By some estimates, the election could be decided by a margin of roughly two points, or a mere 2.5 million people. The disenfranchised felon voting block is “absolutely enough” to swing an election, says Sasha Abramsky, author of
Conned: How Millions Went to Prison, Lost the Vote and Helped Send George W. Bush to the White House.
