The session will take the form of a roundtable discussion comprised of the formerly incarcerated, organizers, activists, attorneys, and policy analysts experiencing and addressing voting rights disparities across the county. Within 4-hours, the session will provide a national overview of voting laws including recent changes. Next, the session will address the legal aspects of voting in America, including the 2008 Presidential election, rights on Election Day, voting irregularities, voter identification, felon disenfranchisement, and redistricting. The second half of the session will be dedicated solely to community organizing around voting rights with an emphasis on felon disenfranchisement. Members of the formerly incarcerated community will serve on the panel and provide personal testimonials. In respect to international human rights standards, we will briefly compare the United States felon disenfranchisement policies with other nations. Specifically, the session will highlight several Georgia-based community organizing efforts: The Georgia Vote Connection Center, The National Alliance for Radical Prison Reform, and The Prison & Jail Project. By providing local examples of community voting rights organizing, the session will equip participants with tactical, legislative and advocacy tools that can be modeled back in their communities.

This session parallels the United States Social Forums themes of raising consciousness and awareness of current struggles of oppressed people related to voting rights, while specifically providing case studies and best practices on successful strategies to achieving a more humane, just and equal world that disenfranchises no one from democratic participation. The session will be conducted in English, with several handouts available in Spanish.
The largest challenge within the voting rights movement is the infringement on any American’s right to due process and unfair treatment by United States government resulting in the loss of a truly Democratic liberty – the right to vote and the fundamental right to participate in shaping your government. It is our premise that the right to vote is fundamental and should not be denied to any race, class, or group of human beings. The commission of a crime should not diminish any person’s civil liberties. The strategies we will articulate in support of fundamental voting rights include public education, legislative advocacy, litigation, community organizing, and the use of international human rights mechanisms.
The following URLs have more information on collaborative work to be discussed in this session:
http://www.aclu.org/votingrights/index.html
http://www.acluga.org/voting.rights.html
http://www.democracysghosts.org
http://www.aclu.org/votingrights/exoffenders/25663pub20060525.html