A paperwork requirement that applies to thousands of Louisiana residents who want to restore their voting rights after being convicted of felonies violates federal law and is a vestige of the Jim Crow era, according to a federal lawsuit filed this month.
Several groups, including the League of Women Voters of Louisiana, filed the complaint May 1 in the Middle District of Louisiana. It calls on Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin to end the policy of requiring documentation for those seeking to restore their voting rights after after completing sentences for felony violations.
Under laws passed by the state Legislature in 2019 and 2021, those who have been out of prison for five years are automatically granted the right to vote, according to the complaint. But former inmates who previously registered to vote and want to regain their rights must submit documents from the Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DPSC), the lawsuit says, while inmates who were not registered previously can register to vote without the paperwork requirement.
“This discriminatory treatment is irrational, imposes unnecessary burdens on the right to vote and allows the state to shirk its responsibility to verify voter registrations from new registrants,” the lawsuit says.
The disenfranchisement affects tens of thousands of Louisianans who served probation or parole for felony convictions, the complaint says. Bill Quigley, a professor and law clinic director at Loyola University Law School, said these residents are entitled to vote under the National Voter Registration Act.
“Louisiana officials are violating this law by dropping some people who never went to prison from the voter rolls and requiring those who served their time to have multiple visits to their local registrar of voters to be able to vote,” Quigley said in an email to the Louisiana Record. “Voting is a right not a privilege, and (plaintiff Voice of the Experienced), the League of Women Voters and the Power Coalition are fighting to protect the rights of all."
The application of the paperwork requirement to only some former inmates constitutes a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, according to the lawsuit.
Bruce Reilly, Voice of the Experienced’s deputy director, said the paperwork requirement is a redundant provision that wastes the time of those involved in the process.
“Some people finished their sentences decades ago and are being told to see their parole officer and get paperwork,” Reilly said in a prepared statement. “Others have only ever been on probation and should never have been suspended at all.”