I was in prison. This year I’ll vote for the first time in 25 years. Here’s why it matters
While I was incarcerated, my friends and I would get into debates about politics all day long. The Black Prisoners’ Caucus had started its own higher education program: we stayed involved, talked about politics and even earned certificates for passing a class on local politics. But despite all that, we had no say.
When you don’t have the basic right to vote, it’s like you’re not human. You are living in the world, but so far apart. I watched politics play out on CNN and FOX, saw the rise of Black Lives Matter and experienced the coronavirus pandemic, but was not allowed to be involved. I would watch the news thinking “This ain’t right,” but I couldn’t fix it or be part of it. I was involved with education, liberation and fighting the stigma of incarceration while inside, but wished I could push the line or pick up a sign.
This year, I will vote for the first time — after 25 years of incarceration.
My participation is only possible because of a new law that was championed by state Rep. Tarra Simmons, who is believed to be Washington’s first formerly-incarcerated state legislator. Thanks to this new law, Washington now restores the voting rights of formerly people immediately upon returning home from prison. If the law hadn’t passed, people like me on community supervision would have had to sit this election out, and we could lose our rights because of court debt. Now, any citizen not in prison for a felony can vote in the 2022 election. More than 20,000 voters, including me, had our voting rights restored this year.
Getting my voting rights back felt like newfound freedom, like a burden that had been bound on me was uplifted. It felt like hope, change and aspiration. It felt like the first step towards breaking the chain of not-caring in my family and community.
Some of that not-caring comes from believing we have no power to change anything. Especially in urban, Black neighborhoods, many of us believe that everything is rigged and that a few people are building the system to work against us.
The oppression that we’ve dealt with is very real — there’s a reason why they call mass incarceration “the new Jim Crow.” The drug laws, gun laws and sentencing laws target minorities the most. We’re not able to get proper housing or a job, or so many of the things that could help after being incarcerated. It’s an uphill battle, and too much stress brings people who have been in prison back to the same situation, back to doing the same things. If we do not have the right to vote, we have no power to challenge the laws that will put us behind bars for longer.
The only way forward is to change those laws, and put legislators and judges in place who are working for us. All the new laws that have improved life for our community are because of the people in the community voting and speaking up.
We saw this happen with Washington’s voting rights restoration bill. Even in prison during the horror of COVID-19 lockdowns, everyone was talking about how big of a win this was, talking about next steps.
Now that I am free, I am even more involved with the movement and our people. Our votes really do count — this big first step for rights restoration proves that when the community comes together, wonderful things can happen.
Change starts right here, right now, with us. A lot of people may not be planning on voting or might not know about the new law, so let’s talk about it and bring it to the communities, especially our Black and minority communities. Word of mouth is a beautiful tool.
Ground zero is right now, and this is going to be the movement.
Willie Nobles is an expectant father, an activist with the WA Voting Rights Restoration Coalition, and the project manager of Fabian’s Fund. He lives in Tacoma.
