Secretary Weber designates state parole office as voter registration agency
SACRAMENTO – On Friday, in response to demands by voting rights advocates, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber designated the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Division of Adult Parole Operations (DAPO) as a voter registration agency, effectively increasing voting access for Californians on parole.
Civil rights groups welcomed the new designation by the state secretary. Brittany Stonesifer, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, said: “Eligible voters impacted by the criminal legal system frequently experience de facto disenfranchisement due to misinformation about voter eligibility and lack of access to registration. Designating the parole office as a voter registration agency will reduce confusion for voters on parole and increase access to the ballot box for people who have long been denied political power.”
In 2020, Californians overwhelmingly passed Proposition 17, restoring the right to vote for people on parole. Currently, there are almost 35,000 people on parole, the vast majority of whom are U.S. citizens and residents of California and thus eligible to vote. Since 2021, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Initiate Justice, League of Women Voters of California, the Brennan Center for Justice and others urged the state secretary to designate DAPO as a voter registration agency. In compliance with the National Voter Registration Act, the new designation means that DAPO officers will now offer people on parole opportunities to register to vote or update their registration after their release from prison and when they change their address with DAPO.
“Parole officers have the most contact with eligible voters during their reentry into society and can help ensure that they know about their voting rights and are able to exercise them,” said Taina Vargas, executive director of Initiate Justice Action. “This designation will help close the voter registration gap for eligible Californians on parole who have been underrepresented in our democracy since our state’s founding.”
This effort is part of an ongoing campaign to improve voter representation for eligible voters impacted by the criminal legal system. The secretary of state has the authority to designate additional agencies – including public defender’s offices, jails and probation offices – as voter registration agencies.