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Abstract

In May 2001, a Democratic-led Connecticut General Assembly passed a bill restoring the voting rights of convicted felons on probation. The measure, signed into law by then governor John G. Rowland, a Republican, made Connecticut one of the first states to successfully and significantly alter its voter eligibility law in the aftermath of the controversial 2000 presidential election. This was the culmination of a 7-year campaign started when Hartford freshman legislator Kenneth P. Green introduced a bill designed to eliminate Connecticut's restriction on voting rights of persons convicted of felonies. This investigation tells how Green and the Connecticut Voting Rights Restoration Coalition—a racially and ethnically diverse coalition of more than 40 grassroots organizations and social justice and faith-based groups and agencies working in the criminal justice system and 3 legislatively sponsored commissions for women, Latinos, and African Americans—worked together to secure passage of this landmark piece of legislation.

Keywords

disenfranchisement voting restoration Connecticut ex-felon

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The Campaign to Restore the Voting Rights of People Convicted of a Felony and Sentenced to Probation in Connecticut

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