It's Not Just a Vote

The right to vote is a core building block for our democracy. We are taught that our vote matters and that voting is integral to our communities and our country. In this final episode of Humanity Unlocked, we confront a fundamental issue: roughly 45,000 people ‘on papers’ in Wisconsin do not have the right to vote, even though they are no longer in prison. Jerome Dillard, Executive Director of EXPO (Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing), calls this being “locked up on the outside.”

In this episode, we talk to Jerome and his colleague Tamra Oman about the implications of the disenfranchisement of individuals who have been incarcerated. After serving prison sentences themselves, they learned first-hand that civic health and community health depend on knowing that you belong.

Visit the Episode Extras on the Wisconsin Humanity website to read an essay from Robert Taliaferro and to learn more about voter disenfranchisement and the work that EXPO is doing.