JACKSON, Miss.— Although Albert Donelson spent time in prison for committing multiple crimes, he still has the right to vote in Mississippi—unlike thousands of others. He now uses his platform as a radio-show host on WMPR 90.1 to educate listeners about felony disenfranchisement in Mississippi, under which people convicted of certain crimes lose their right to vote for life, even after serving their time.
Mississippians convicted of any of the following 23 crimes are disenfranchised for life without legislative intervention: voter fraud, rape, statutory rape, murder, bribery, theft, carjacking, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, forgery, embezzlement, bigamy, armed robbery, extortion, larceny, felony bad check, felony shoplifting, receiving stolen goods, robbery, timber larceny, motor vehicle theft, and larceny under lease or rental agreement.
But Mississippi does not take away the right to vote for all people with criminal convictions; some people convicted of crimes not on the list, which dates back to a Jim Crow-era law, can even vote while incarcerated.
While in prison, Donelson said he heard “whispers” of inmates wanting to vote, but the prison authorities never gave them the chance to cast a ballot.
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“When I was in prison, we had this discussion, but it was like more of a whisper to each other,” he said at the Right to Restore 2024 panel on Aug. 27. “It was more, we talked about, ‘You know, we can vote in prison. This can help the race that’s outside in society.’ But we never really thought that it was real because when we went to ask the authorities about everything, you could never get the assistance you needed to get the vote out.”
Under state law, inmates who have not been convicted of one of the disenfranchising crimes are supposed to be allowed to cast an absentee ballot.
Donelson began advocating for helping incarcerated people vote and urging the government to restore voting rights for formerly incarcerated people.
“If they’ve been out of prison and been a productive citizen and
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