People with felony convictions lose access to voting because of the intersection of two systems—the election law system and the criminal justice system.  Both systems have been used independently to discriminate against people of color for much of American history. 

Most Americans would probably be surprised to learn that there is no provision of U.S. law that affirmatively guarantees citizens the right to vote. No such right is explicitly guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, the 1965 Voting Rights Act or any other federal legislation. Even the post-Civil War amendments to the Constitution do not explicitly guarantee the fundamental right to vote to all citizens.

The core strategy of our voter protection efforts is to monitor registration processing and election administration, to expose problems early in the election cycle, to address these difficulties, and to remove obstacles prior to Election Day. Over the long haul, we strive to refine and implement the infrastructure for a voter protection effort that will be a watchdog, monitoring the administration of elections well beyond the next election cycle.