In Illinois women’s prisons, time is measured differently. People serving sentences count the days until a family visit, the months until a parole hearing, or the years until their release date.
They count birthdays of loved ones missed, children growing older, and milestones passing outside prison walls.
For those serving felony sentences, another date remains uncertain: the day they can cast a ballot again.
In Illinois, people serving felony sentences lose the right to vote while incarcerated.
Voter disenfranchisement laws will bar an estimated 30 thousand Illinoisans from casting a ballot in November’s election, according to recent figures.
On July 3, Returning Citizens Independence Day in Illinois, the Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice (ILARJ) launched its “Vote in Her Honor” campaign. The initiative allows people to pledge their vote in the November 2026 election in honor of a person incarcerated at an Illinois women’s prison.
“‘Vote in Her Honor’ highlights a policy that we believe is rooted in racism and that denies voting rights to people who are incarcerated,” ILARJ executive director Avalon Betts-Gaston said.
What is Returning Citizens Independence Day?
Returning Citizens Independence Day, established in 2017 by an Illinois General Assembly resolution, recognizes the contributions formerly incarcerated people make to their communities.
“It challenges the assumption that people with arrest or conviction records—particularly those who have been incarcerated—only contribute negatively to society,” Betts-Gaston said.
Social stigma around records results in tangible consequences: returning citizens face barriers to employment, securing loans, and access to housing and social services resulting in “collateral consequences” like lost earnings and limited opportunities.
Returning Citizens Independence Day honors the achievements of justice-impacted citizens in Chicago—which include leading violence intervention programs and creating award-winning art that highlights social issues.
A history of disenfranchisement
The 1970 Illinois Constitution codified preexisting state laws preventing people serving sentences from casting a ballot. While more than half of states in the U.S. have enacted laws restoring voting rights to people in prisons, Illinois continues to prohibit people in prisons from voting.
“We’ve been sold this false notion that people who have been convicted of a felony should somehow be deprived of their civic engagement—that as part of repaying their debt, they should no longer be able to participate in their communities,” Betts-Gaston said.
“The two common arguments are that this somehow rights the wrong that was committed and that it makes us safer.”
Vote in Her Honor
ILARJ aims to connect at least 1,000 women incarcerated across three Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) facilities with volunteers who pledge to vote on their behalf.
Volunteer voters can choose a specific person or be matched with someone at random. Anyone—regardless of where they live—can pledge their vote in the November election.
The Vote in Her Honor website showcases personal value statements written by participants in Illinois prisons explaining why voting matters to them and why they believe they should retain the right to vote.
After spending more than two decades incarcerated in Illinois prisons for a nonviolent offense, Curtis Ferdinand signed up as a volunteer voter on behalf of a woman—Mary—who is incarcerated in IDOC. Ferdinand also volunteers for Chicago Votes, an organization geared toward dismantling barriers to civic participation through education, voter registration and advocacy for reform.
“I’m part of this community, so it resonated with me. I wanted to be able to do something in honor of someone,” Ferdinand said. “We’ve been disenfranchised for so long. Being able to vote for the people who represent us, that’s a huge thing.”
Chicago Votes actively pushes for the passage of the RACE Act, legislation that would restore voting rights to people in Illinois prisons.
After 2019, when Illinois passed a law requiring IDOC facilities to provide civics and voting rights education to incarcerated people shortly before being released, Ferdinand became one of the first peer educators teaching the course at Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg, Illinois.
Ferdinand said that voting is a “fundamental right.”
“If we have a real country that [values] second chances and that every voice should count, it should matter that these are voices that aren’t being counted. They aren’t being heard,” Ferdinand said. “Giving a person who is currently incarcerated, giving them that voice isn’t going to diminish the folks who aren’t incarcerated.”
Betts-Gaston said the campaign focuses on women because incarceration often affects entire families. More than 60 percent of women in state and federal prisons are mothers of minor children, and in Illinois that figure is closer to 80 percent, according to ILARJ.
Betts-Gaston said incarceration places enormous financial strain on families, who are often forced to choose between supporting a loved one in prison and meeting their children’s basic needs.