Bill restores voting rights to people with criminal records
S. 5122 — Inclusive Democracy Act of 2026 · Filed by Peter Welch (D-VT) · Introduced Jul 23, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill lets people who were convicted of crimes vote. They can vote even if they are in prison or on probation. Courts and prisons must tell people they can vote. Prisons and jails must help people register and vote by mail. The Attorney General and citizens can sue if rules are broken.
Who it affects
People in prison gain voting rights. People on probation or parole gain voting rights. Prisons, jails, courts, and election offices must follow new rules.
One thing to notice
Prisons and jails must help people vote and give them voting information. Election officials and prison staff have only 10 days to fix ballot problems before an election.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jul 23, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 23, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- convicted — found guilty of breaking a law by a court
- probation — a period when a person is watched by the government instead of going to prison
- parole — early release from prison with rules to follow
- Attorney General — the top law officer for the United States government
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (21,984 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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