The National Symposium on Felony Disenfranchisment, sponsored by The Sentencing Project, has been meeting the past two days in Washington in an effort to find ways to ease voting restrictions on those with felony criminal records.

The group estimates that "a half-millon people with a felony conviction will be allowed to vote in this November's elections as a result of changes in state laws over the past five years." The group is advocating that even more ex-convicts and inmates be allowed to cast ballots.

Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, and Texas are the latest states to make some positive changes. The group says this reflects an increasing recognition among policymakers that the voting rights of all citizens are essential in a democracy. In the past two years, Delaware and Maryland have substantially scaled back their lifetime voting bans and New Mexico repealed its prohibition entirely.

According to Marc Mauer, assistant director of The Sentencing Project and the author of Race to Incarcerate, all states except Maine and Vermont strip felons of their voting rights for some period of time. Most prohibit voting while in prison and 32 restrict voting on probation and/or. Florida is one of only 8 states that deny voting rights for life to all ex-felons.

The group says it has obtained figures from the Department of Justice showing that 3.9 million felons are currently or permanently disenfranchised. That's a lot of potential votes--enough to affect the outcome of an election.

The Symposium Program for this week's meeting shows that participants are learning that: