(New York) - Legislation advancing in Maryland and Alabama would expand voting rights for people with felony convictions, marking significant progress in the movement to expand voting rights for all, Human Rights Watch said today. Alabama recently enacted a law to make it easier for people to vote after they complete prison sentences. Maryland Governor Wes Moore should sign HB115 into law, and other states should follow their lead. 

In Maryland, HB115 would automatically register people to vote as they are leaving prison, removing a significant barrier that has kept eligible voters off the rolls for years. Alabama's Senate Bill 24, recently signed by the governor, requires the Board of Pardons and Paroles to provide "easily accessible" information regarding the restoration process to people who have completed their sentences. It also requires the board to inform the secretary of state when individual rights are restored to add them to the voter rolls. The bill's passage marks significant progress for the state, where 1 in 10 Black adults are disenfranchised because of criminal convictions. 

"These bills are hard-won victories by advocates and directly affected people who have worked for years to expand the right to vote in these states," said Trey Walk, democracy researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch. "The United States should live up to its democratic ideals by offering the right to vote without regard to a person's experience with the criminal legal system."

These reforms come at the same time as the Trump administration has taken steps that could make it more difficult to vote. The administration has sought to impose new restrictions on vote-by-mail, which millions of voters, including people with disabilities, rely on. 

In October 2025, the US Supreme Court heard arguments in Louisiana v. Callais, which asks whether creating majority-Black congressional districts, to comply with Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, violates the US Constitution. That case, which will be decided in the coming months, has drawn serious alarm from racial justice and voting rights advocates. 

"With sustained attacks on federal voting rights protections, it is critical for state legislatures to take up the mantle," Walk said. "They should not only defend but expand access to the ballot." 

The United States remains out of step with prevailing global practices in disenfranchising large numbers of people based on criminal convictions, with felony disenfranchisement affecting over four million people.

This impact is highly racialized. The Sentencing Project estimated in 2024 that 1 in 22 Black Americans of voting age is disenfranchised, more than 3 times the rate of people who are not Black. According to the same study, at least 495,000 US Latines, or 1.5 percent of the voting-eligible population, are disenfranchised.

More work will remain even if both bills become law, Human Rights Watch said. Alabama's bill in particular would retain the state's practice of requiring people on felony parole or probation to pay court fees, fines, and other costs before their voting rights can be restored. This kind of "pay-to-vote" requirement disproportionately keeps low-income people off the voting rolls.

Globally, most countries with populations of 1.5 million or more never, or rarely, deny the right to vote because of a criminal conviction. The reforms in states like Maryland and Alabama move the United States closer to this international norm.

The right to vote is protected under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the United States ratified in 1992. The United Nations Human Rights Committee holds that any restrictions on voting rights must be "objective and reasonable" and that the length of any suspension of voting rights based on a conviction should be proportionate to the offense and the sentence. 

In 2024, Human Rights Watch, along with the Sentencing Project and the American Civil Liberties Union, released "Out of Step: U.S. Policy on Voting Rights in Global Perspective," a report examining state and federal policies regarding felony disenfranchisement. The groups recommended that the United States should end felony disenfranchisement, eliminate "pay-to-vote" practices, establish polling centers in correctional facilities, and require officials to notify all eligible voters of their rights.

"Every state should be working to tear down unnecessary barriers to voting," Walk said. "Voting is a human right that protects everyone."

Source: Human Rights Watch