By Suzie Glassman, Colorado Community Media
New law establishes in-person polling places in detention centers, empowering eligible incarcerated voters to participate in democracy
As a heavy metal door opened, Jesus Rodriguez walked carefully through the corridors of the Jefferson County Detention Center, taking deliberate steps toward a room that would become a temporary polling place. He will participate in a deeply embedded American right — a right that he said felt distant and, at times, impossible from behind bars.
For the first time in his life, Rodriguez was about to cast his vote. A new Colorado law aimed at expanding voting access to individuals within the criminal justice system made this act possible. SB24-072, passed last spring, mandates that county clerks and sheriffs establish at least one day of in-person voting at jails and detention centers for eligible incarcerated voters.
Rodriguez, who woke up that morning unsure if he would even attempt to vote, said he decided, “Why not try?” after a security guard passed through a second time to grab inmates waiting to go to the voter registration room.
“I’m 29 years old, and I’ve never voted because I never thought it would mean that much, but in votes like today, I guess one vote means everything,” Rodriguez said. “It made me feel really good to know that my opinion matters in this situation.”
Rodriguez acknowledged that while he made mistakes in the past, he cares deeply about the community outside. “People would be surprised to know that those of us who are incarcerated do pay attention to what’s going on out there because while we live every day in here, out there is what really matters,” he said.
A milestone moment for voting access in Colorado
Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Amanda Gonzalez choked up hearing Rodriguez describe his voting experience as one of the top five in his life. “Voting is so many things,” Gonzalez, who is also a voting rights attorney, said. “It’s the way we express hope. It’s the way that we express love for our community. It’s the way that we have our voices heard. I ran for office because I want to make sure that every eligible voter is able to cast their vote, and we just got one step closer today.”
Gonzalez said that when she was elected in 2022, she discovered that the county had eligible voters in the criminal justice system who were effectively being denied the right to vote. In Colorado, only those inmates serving time for a felony conviction are ineligible.
“But, what we found in 2022 was that out of more than 900 people who were in our jail, only three cast a vote,” Gonzalez said. “Having the right to vote is fundamentally different than being able to exercise it.”
As a result, Gonzalez said her office teamed up with several community-based organizations, including the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, to pass the Voting for Confined Eligible Electors Act. “We’re the first state in the nation that will have that kind of opportunity statewide,” she said.
Gonzalez hopes other states will follow suit. “This is just one more example of how our democracy should work for everyone. If you are eligible to vote, you should be able to vote, and I hope that we see this throughout the country,” she said.
Ensuring every voice is counted
Gonzalez and Rodriguez weren’t the only two to grasp the moment’s importance. Kyle Giddings, an election judge and civic engagement coordinator with the Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, was there to vet the inmates’ registration forms to ensure that no inmates still serving time on a felony charge were passed through to receive a ballot.
Yet, for him, the job wasn’t just about vetting inmates. Ten years ago, almost to the day, Giddings recalled sitting inside that same jail as an inmate having a conversation with a man who thought he’d lost his right to vote forever.
“It started this whole chain of events of having conversations with everyone in the pod,” Giddings said. “I was running into guys in their 30s, 40s and 50s who had never voted before because of the legacy of Jim Crow, which suppressed voting rights for African Americans. Suddenly, I was on this whole trajectory of educating folks and helping make sure justice-involved folks know their right to vote.”
It didn’t surprise Giddings in the slightest that so many inmates showed up wanting to receive a ballot. “There are two ballot initiatives (Proposition 128 and Amendment I) that directly impact the criminal justice system,” he said. “So, making sure they have access to the ballot and having their voices heard really matters to them.”
To Giddings, this is deeply personal. “Jeffco is my home. Colorado is my home, and making sure people have their voices heard in their communities is my life’s work now,” he said.
While it’s too early to know how many Colorado inmates will vote this year, Gonzalez said the numbers in Jeffco have already exceeded any prior year by the hundreds, resulting in more than a 10,000 percent increase.
A message from behind bars
Having finally expressed his right to vote, Rodriguez challenged those on the outside to do the same. “If I can go through a whole process of leaving from where I’m at through a controlled movement to get there, and you don’t have to do that, and you have the free will to vote, then do it,” he said.
“The most positive thing I’m going to take from this whole experience is knowing that I didn’t allow another person in my shoes to tell me, ‘Oh, you can’t vote because you’ve got so and so situation going on.’ I took the chance to come and find out myself,” he continued.
Mostly, Rodriguez felt pride. “I came to vote today because even if my one vote doesn’t matter, it still matters to me. There were a couple of issues in these votes that I felt strongly about. No one may ever know what I voted for, but for me to know that I placed my opinion on the matter makes me feel like my voice has meaning now.”
Asked whether he’ll vote again, Rodriguez’s answer was simple. “Absolutely.”
This story was published through a content-sharing agreement with Colorado News Collaborative.
