Success
Stories
jails throughout the country have successfully implemented polling cites and have seen high turn out engagement
Colorado
Colorado became the first state to mandate county jails or detention centers to provide in- person voting in 2024. One county in Colorado saw a 10,000% increase in turnout from three people voting in the 2022 general election to 300 people in November 2024’s election. Colorado’s law serves as a gold standard, ensuring that eligible voters have the same access to voting options as every other eligible voter.
DALLAS COUNTY, TEXAS
Dallas created an Election Day polling site which dramatically increased voter participation. In 2020, only thirty-four people voted in the presidential election. By 2023, in a May municipal special election using the new poll- site, in-person votes alone were approximately 59% of the 2020 general election vote in the jail, and had surpassed 2022 general election numbers. Countywide turnout in 2020 was 66%, while the special election turnout countywide was only 9%.
COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS
Illinois implemented the nation’s first jail-based polling place in 2020 with a jail population of over 5,000 people. The success of their program in Chicago has led to extremely high voter turnout in the jail; in the June 2022 primary, the jail population voted at a higher rate (25%) than the city of Chicago (20%).
HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS
Harris County developed a pilot program to allow people in county jail to vote at a jail-based polling place. During this year of the pilot program 96 of the 100 eligible voters exercised their right to vote in the county’s local elections.