Pushback on jail outreach
That confusion about voting is perhaps greatest in jails, where people’s involvement with the justice system typically begins. About 75% of the people in Washington’s jails are being held pretrial, according to a 2019 report by a state task force that looked at the most populous counties. These people are eligible to vote, yet many may not know they can legally cast a ballot, or are not afforded the opportunity to.
A bill sponsored by Simmons this session would require county jails to implement “jail voting plans” and provide registration information and ballots to inmates. That bill passed out of the House Committee on State Government
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