Kyle Giddings speaks about fighting misinformation and other barriers to voting in jail

In KUNR, Kyle Giddings (Leading with Conviction™ 2024), civic engagement coordinator at the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, spoke about working to help people in Colorado jails cast their vote.

“The laws about when people with felony convictions can vote again vary by state. In Colorado, they can vote after being released from jail or prison. So, Giddings makes sure the interested voters aren’t currently serving time for a felony.

“However, most of the roughly half a million people in jails across the country have not lost the right to vote. They’re awaiting trial, meaning they haven’t been found guilty of a crime, or they’re serving misdemeanor sentences. But very few people in jail cast ballots.

“About 900 people in the Jefferson County Jail were allowed to vote in the 2022 midterms, yet only three actually did.

“Nine years ago, Giddings was incarcerated in this very jail.

“’I dealt with addiction for years and finally it all caught up to me,’ he said.

“It was the lead up to the 2016 election, and he was talking about it with others in his pod.

“’They just assumed they could never vote again,’ he said.

“It was kind of in that moment that I realized that this is work that needs to be done.”

Read the full article at KUNR.org.