Voter Empowerment

We heard a few stories throughout Election Day of former felons who had gone through the process to have their vote restored by gubernatorial pardon – and received it – but were still illegally tuned away at the polls.  This is one story from former felon Jason Smith (who we interviewed last year) who encountered a lot of difficulty in casting his first vote in a presidential election earlier this month.  

"I was excited. I got my right to vote back after working hard to get it back in 2011 and voted for the first time in the General Election last year.

"This was my first presidential election, though, and I was taking it really seriously – learning about all of the issues and candidates and really doing the research to cast a well-informed vote.

"And the line was so much longer than I thought it would be. I waited for almost an hour to vote, but it didn’t matter. It was worth it.

"When I got up to the front, there was a sweet older lady who asked for my name and flipped through the booklet, but just couldn’t find me anywhere. She called the Hardin County Clerk’s office and handed me the phone.

"I couldn’t believe what the person on the other end of the phone was telling me.