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    • ‘I voted’ has a special meaning for these Americans
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    ‘I voted’ has a special meaning for these Americans

    Harry Posted on

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    Corey Oden voted for the first time on Election Day.

    Oden, 41, of Birmingham, Alabama, said he was either told repeatedly throughout his adult life by probation officers and state officials that he couldn’t vote, or was unaware he could vote after a 24-year conviction for check fraud. before.

    He served a year under house arrest for “my fault” and paid increased restitution in connection with his crime. In August, Oden learned he had the right to vote after a local nonprofit connected him with one. Free Our VoteThis helps restore voting rights to felons.

    “Free Our Vote” paid the nearly $500 he still owed and he no longer “needs to hide or be ashamed or ashamed,” Oden told USA TODAY. She was excited to get her own “I Voted” sticker instead of wearing her friends’ stickers during election season.

    “I had given up hope. I never thought it would be possible,” a tearful Oden said last week, imagining filling out a ballot. “I know my hands will shake and I will become an emotional wreck.”

    ‘These obstacles have no meaning’

    forty-eight states There are laws restricting the right to vote Number of people convicted of a felony, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. As a result, more than 4 million Americans, approximately 2% of the voting-age population, be out of place The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit focused on decarceration, said based on 2022 statistics that inmates can vote even after completing their prison sentences.

    For many people, the permanent obstacle to restoring the right to vote is the payment of fines, fees or compensation.

    Free Our Vote, a nonpartisan, nonprofit technology organization based in Washington, D.C., is working with other nonprofits to pay these dues and get felons on the ballot.

    “These barriers didn’t make sense,” he said Neel Suhtakme, founder of Free Our Voteis an attorney and professor of law at Georgetown University. “We felt like we could help these people who had served their time, were trying to pay their debts socially and financially, and deserved to vote.”

    Free Our Vote hopes to restore the right to vote to more than 400,000 people, mostly in the south and southwest, in this year’s elections and expand to nine more states in 2025.

    The organization is funded by a $265,000 grant from the party. Fast ForwardA San Francisco-based startup that helps early-stage nonprofits with funding, donor outreach and mentoring.

    “The right to vote is foundational to who we are as Americans; once they complete the requirements to re-enter, it feels only fair that they be given every opportunity to do so,” Fast Forward co-founder Shannon Farley told USA TODAY. “Fighting for democracy is difficult and requires all of us.”

    ‘If enough people speak out we can make some changes’

    Virginia Mireles was last eligible to vote in 1996, when President Bill Clinton was running for re-election.

    Mireles, 53, a mother of three grown children, has had a difficult life. Eight convictions for non-violent crimes, including numerous burglary convictions, resulted in a 17-year prison sentence while he struggled with drug addiction.

    He went to rehab seven times, hoping he could stop. He vowed to put his life back together after his last conviction in 2013. She had been clean for 11 years while trying to help her youngest daughter, who had her own addiction, and her older son, who had been clean for the past two years. He is raising his son’s little daughter.

    Mireles, who rose to call center supervisor after taking a job at Televerde during his last prison stint, voted in the state primary in late July.

    “I think I started crying and laughing,” he said, remembering that moment. “I feel like I’m trying to join the solution. Like I’m not in the background.”

    Mireles now volunteers with the Arizona Justice Project to help other felons see if they can vote. He encourages them to email or go to the courts to see if they are eligible to seek full release of their prison sentences, restoration of their civil rights, and reduction or forgiveness of any fines.

    he voted Kamala Harris She ran for president, hoping that her grandchild would have full reproductive rights.

    “I want to make sure he has all the options he needs to have and set a good example for him,” Mireles said. “This country is so divisive. We don’t need to be so ugly to each other. I’m trying to find a solution. I’m trying to help.”

    Voting ‘makes me feel whole’

    Last year, as a program coordinator at TAKE Resource Center, which focuses on transgender community advocacy, Oden met Dori Miles, co-founder of Birmingham-based Return My Vote, which helps felons regain their voting rights.

    Miles innocently asked Oden if he was registered to vote, and Oden shyly told him his situation. Miles, an attorney who also works with the LGBTQ community, thought he could help Oden. He checked the state database and found he was eligible for reinstatement.

    “The disenfranchised rate in Alabama is about 13% and the majority are black, and Corey falls into that category,” Miles said. “I didn’t really know how important voting was to him until he gave the first speech.”

    Wearing a powder blue suit and a blue and orange patterned tie that “popped” over his white shirt, Oden voted early on Election Day. He wanted to be a role model for his two adult nephews, who were also voting for the first time, and leave time to take others to the polls.

    Later Tuesday, he described the experience as “liberating.”

    “In a weird way, it makes me feel whole,” said Oden, who voted for Harris. “And when I put that sticker on my chest, I feel like a contributing member of society and my late mother’s prayers are answered. “I feel that way too.”

    Harry
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