Access to voting rights has quietly and steadily expanded in recent years for one particular demographic: those with felony convictions. This population now includes one of the two major party candidates: former President Donald Trump.

In much of American history, a felony conviction meant a lifetime deprivation of the right to vote (among other rights that were taken away and never given back). If you refused to follow the laws of society, the logic went, you should lose the freedoms that came with them. This also included voting.

However, over the past three decades, 26 states and Washington, D.C. have passed laws allowing people with felony convictions to regain the right to vote. In most cases, the right to vote is automatically restored once a person completes their sentence. In other cases, the person must also complete the probation and parole period and pay any fines or restitution associated with the sentence.

Thanks to recent developments in these laws, Mr. Trump cast his vote in Palm Beach today. Under Florida law, if a voter has been convicted of a felony in another state, Florida will follow the laws of that state in determining whether or not the voter may vote. And in 2021, New York passed a law allowing people with felony convictions to vote as long as they are not incarcerated at the time of the vote.

Mr. Trump, whom a Manhattan jury found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records earlier this year, is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 26. Originally scheduled for early September, the judge in this case postponed his sentencing until after the election.

In total, more than 2 million Americans with felony convictions have regained the right to vote since 1997, according to the Sentencing Project. According to researchers, these voting restoration laws were crucial in helping people with felony convictions successfully reenter society after serving their sentences. In Minnesota, a study found that people with prior felonies who voted in the 1996 election were half as likely to be rearrested between 1997 and 2000 as those who did not vote. In a 2012 survey of disenfranchised Florida citizens, nearly four in 10 “connected their inability to vote with their perceived ability to remain law-abiding.”

But skepticism remains about restoring voting rights to people convicted of a felony.