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Hundreds of DC inmates registered to vote in upcoming election

Over the summer, the DC Council expanded voting rights to incarcerated felons. The DC jail has helped register more than 400 inmates to vote.

WASHINGTON — There is a new group of people allowed to vote this Election Day. Convicted felons, voting from behind bars. 

In July, the D.C. Council expanded those voting rights. In the past, inmates housed in the D.C. jail were already allowed to vote if they were charged with misdemeanors. The District also restored voting rights for convicted felons returning to the community, but now they can do it while they are still behind bars. 

Since that law passed, the D.C. Board of Elections and the D.C. Department of Corrections scrambled to inform inmates of their new rights. More than 440 eligible inmates were registered to vote a week before Election Day and will cast their ballots by mail. 

RELATED: DC to allow incarcerated felons to vote from prison

Department of Corrections Director Quincy L. Booth told WUSA9 many of the inmates didn't believe it was actually true.

"The first few folks that were in our care began to receive their ballots the word spread like wildfire because it was proof. They saw their name on the ballot and said they have the opportunity to vote," said Booth. 

Corey Knight spent several years in prison. Now he's part of D.C.'s Commission on Re-entry and Returning Citizens, a group that pushed for this change in the law. 

"They're walking around with their 'I VOTED' stickers on their uniform so it's a proud moment for all of us as D.C. residents because it's time for us to do right," said Knight. 

D.C. Councilmember Robert White first pushed for this legislation last year.

“The right to vote is the most foundational right in a democracy and even when people are incarcerated, they don't lose most of their rights, so I would argue people should not lose their basic democratic right,” said White.

RELATED: DC lawmakers proposing to give convicted felons voting rights while in prison

The right to vote in D.C. was taken away in the 1950s for those convicted of felonies while serving time. D.C. is unique because it doesn’t have any prisons in the city. There are 6,000 convicted felons from the District serving their sentences in prisons all across the country, according to White.

D.C. residents incarcerated at facilities across the country are allowed to cast their ballots in this upcoming election, however, the D.C. Board of Elections won’t be required to send ballots to those inmates until 2021.  

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