Until 2000, Massachusetts was one of only three states in the nation (along with Maine and Vermont) where convicted felons could actually vote, even when they were in prison. On January 22, 1976, Carl Velleca, who was incarcerated at Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord serving a thirty-two-year sentence for two larceny charges, announced his candidacy for Concord Selectman. “I saw an ad in the local newspaper last January asking for candidates … so I took an hour-long furlough and went down to register,” Velleca told People magazine. Soon after his announcement, Massachusetts legislators filed five bills in an attempt to restrict incarcerated people’s voting rights. Although he lost the election, Velleca received 599 votes — including 500 from people outside of the prison.

Document B

An excerpt from a New York Times article titled “Inmate Runs for Selectman in Concord,” dated April 26, 1976.

“‘I’m not a criminal any more [sic], just a convict,’ said Carl Velleca, candidate for town selectman, from his campaign headquarters in the gift shop of the Massachusetts Correctional Institution here.

“Mr. Velleca, a 44‐year‐old ex‐thief, has become this historic town’s most widely known politician, as well as the central issue in tomorrow’s town election.

“‘Carl has shaken up the town to an extent that no candidate has in my memory,’ said Bill McDonald, a clerk in the Concord post office, who intends to vote against him. ‘Usually the turnout is pretty lackadaisical,’ he said. ‘But I think it’s going to be brisk this year.’

“Spurred by their fellow inmate’s candidacy, and by 1974 state court decision that allows prisoners to cast absentee ballots, 301 of the 411 persons in the prison have registered to vote.

“And although 80 of the inmates chose to vote by absentee ballot in their hometowns, the mass registration raised the possibility of a bloc vote — a ‘cell bloc vote,’ some residents called it — that threatened to control Concord’s nonpartisan and generally unexciting town election.

“Five bills to limit the voting rights of inmates have since been filed in the Massachusetts legislature. And a court suit filed earlier this month, arguing that the Concord inmates are ‘involuntary residents’ and asking that their names be stricken from the town’s voting lists, was partly successful last Friday, when a judge in Boston issued an injunction to impound the inmates’ votes until a decision can be reached on the merits of the case. Monday’s ballots will be counted two ways — with and without the inmates’ votes.

“His campaign manager, Phebe Ham, …said, ‘I couldn’t help getting involved. First blacks got the vote, then women, so it seems right that prisoners should have a say in politics, too.’

“Even the prison’s warden has said that Mr. Velleca will get his vote.

“But Henry Dane, the lawyer who filed the suit to block the inmates’ votes, declared: ‘I don’t think it reflects [good sense in the community] to elect a convicted felon to public office.’”