South Central Regional Jail in Charleston, W.Va. (Lexi Browing | West Virginia Watch)
Nearly half of people in West Virginia’s overcrowded jails have not been convicted and are awaiting trial, making many of them eligible to vote in the current election. State law also permits individuals incarcerated for a misdemeanor crime to vote.
They’d have to access an absentee ballot through jail officials by Oct. 30, but many incarcerated individuals are unaware they can vote, according to American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia Director Eli Baumwell.
“The jails aren’t very good at informing people that they have the right or making it accessible to get them absentee ballots,” he said, adding that many people are sitting in jails in the impoverished state because they can’t afford bail.
“They have to go up to jail officials to request them,” he said.
Absentee ballots have to be postmarked by Nov. 5 — Election Day — but Baumwell said the jail’s mail search and sorting system could hold up ballots both coming in and leaving the jails. People who are newley-detained would likely miss the deadline for requesting a mail-in ballot.
There are 10,105 incarcerated adults in West Virginia.
West Virginia Watch asked leaders with the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation if there were any initiatives to help incarcerated people access absentee ballots.
In response, DCR spokesperson Andy Malinoski said inmates have access to the state’s policy on absentee voting.
The policy states that an eligible inmate desiring an absentee ballot “must make [an] application in writing in the proper form to the proper official.”
The inmate is responsible for mailing the completed ballot in order for the official to receive it no later than the day after the election, according to the policy.
“Unless an inmate is deemed indigent, they cover postage. If their account has less than $5, postage is provided,” Malinoski wrote in an email.
Rico Moore, an attorney in Charleston, said DCR doesn’t do enough to educate incarcerated individuals about their voting rights during elections.
“They love to tell them what they can’t do. … In the local jails, they have signs up about don’t bring in laptops and cell phones. There should be information packets on voting for the people who come in,” he said.
He said that in Kanawha County, he estimated that 400 voters in the local jail were eligible to vote, possibly shifting outcomes in tighter races.
A 2024 Marshall Project survey of more than 54,000 people incarcerated in prisons and jails across the country pushed back on the commonly-held notion that people behind bars would support Democrats.
Of the 717 West Virginia respondents, the majority said they’d vote for former President Donald Trump instead of his opponent, Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I don’t think [President Joe] Biden did a very good job. So why would I want a more extreme version of him? Kamala Harris is going to do what’s popular, not what she feels [is] right,” one person who is incarcerated at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex wrote in response to the survey.
The top party affiliation in West Virginia was “independent” among 464 answers to the question.
Only 8% of respondents said that they wouldn’t vote.
Felon voting laws in West Virginia restore rights but education needed
While pretrial detainees retain their right to vote, people who are convicted of felonies in West Virginia lose that right for a period of time.
Under state law, that right is automatically restored once the individual has completed their sentence, parole and/or probation and paid any fines or restitution.
Baumwell said that the state, in an effort to reduce its jail population, has put people on supervision for long periods of time.
“You’re really holding people out for a long time, and these are people who work and pay taxes so it’s really ‘taxation without representation,’” he said.
The Sentencing Project estimates that 15,696 West Virginia residents are disenfranchised due to a felony conviction.
Moore said that, often, individuals are unaware that they can vote once they’ve completed their sentencing and other requirements.
“You can vote automatically once you’re free in West Virginia,” he said.
Baumwell said that many individuals aren’t typically notified that their voting rights had been restored.
“We’ve encountered a huge number of people who are eligible to vote who didn’t know those rights were restored and were under the assumption [the ban] was forever,” he said. “It’s really incumbent upon the state to make sure that people know that.”
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