This article was originally published in The Nash News out of Nash Correctional Institution in North Carolina. It won third place for Best Local Coverage in the 2025 American Penal Press Contest.
For those who follow politics, this year’s race for the White House had something for everyone. Millions of voters turned out to vote in one of the most contested races in history. A sitting president chose not to run for re-election, the first to do so in 56 years. A major political party nominated the first woman of color, and the first Asian American to run for the nation’s highest office. And a former president regained control of the office after he lost his first re-election bid becoming only the second president to do so – the other being Grover Cleveland who did it in 1898. And, Trump did so while surviving two assassination attempts.
With the collective magnitude of these events, historians will be forgiven for overlooking an event of import that took place in a small prison in northeastern North Carolina.
On Oct. 21, 2024, Nash Correctional Institution (NCI) held the 2024 Mock Election. The joint venture between The Nash News (TNN), Nash Men’s Club, Nash Military Service Club, and the NCI administration was the first of its kind held in a North Carolina prison. Mr. Herring, Programs Supervisor, facilitated the event, while the Nash Men’s Club and Military Service Club — in what would surely be considered voter tampering on the outside — provided complementary bags of popcorn for all who voted.
In all, 487 incarcerated men took the time to vote and fill out a short demographic survey, which asked questions related to the voter’s age, ethnicity, and voter experience, among others. The number of men who participated in the event confirmed that incarcerated individuals are keenly interested in what happens in the state and federal political races. This interest exists despite the temporary suspension of their voting rights while incarcerated.
Ricky Slack, a Nash Correctional resident, said he was never involved with politics before coming to prison, but incarceration changed his perspective. “Incarceration has created an awareness of the relationship of the decisions that are made on the federal and state level and how that relationship affects me in prison,” he said. “I wish we could vote now. Just because I am in prison, does not mean that I am not a citizen of the United States.”
Like Slack, Shawn Horskins said that his incarceration changed the way he thought about politics. “When I voted before, I voted more based on the popularity of the candidate. Now, I would vote based on who supports the issues that are important to me, like prison and sentencing reform.” He did, however, express frustration over the popcorn line, which he called, “Too dang long.”
The men at Nash voted for who they wanted to see in the offices of President of the United States, and Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and State Attorney General of North Carolina. Although the voters were not required to fill out the survey in order to receive a bag of popcorn, every ballot submitted contained at least one vote, even if that vote was undecided or no preference.
Jerry Grady, another Nash voter, said he enjoyed the event because of the discussions he and another voter were able to have while they waited in line for popcorn. “He told me who he voted for, and I told him who I voted for, and even though we voted differently, we found that there were a lot of topics that we still agreed on.”
Kenneth Willis concurred, saying he believed many voters are not a straight Republican or a straight Democrat. “There are those who vote Republican that agree with the Democrats on some things and Democrats who agree with some Republican policies. People have different views. It’s not all black and white.”
At the conclusion of the voting, TNN took the ballots to the Correction Enterprises Print Plant to tally the votes. TNN staff members numbered and scanned both sides of each ballot. TNN staff member Joseph Lee created a spreadsheet to track all the votes and survey questions. To ensure that the manual entry of the votes was recorded accurately, the votes were counted by two TNN staff members who recorded the data onto separate spreadsheets. Another spreadsheet compared the two sets of data, and any discrepancies were checked and fixed.
Along with voting for the different candidates and filling out the survey, the voters had an opportunity to state which issues were the most important to them. As would be expected, many chose prison and sentencing reform as the issue most important to them. Surprisingly, however, the vast majority of respondents identified the economy and education as the most important issues for them, showing that they share the concerns of voters outside prison.
As previously reported on the TNN Digital Special News Bulletin released on November 5, Nash residents voted 234-219 for Kamala Harris, Josh Stein won handily over Mark Robinson 272-152, Rachel Hunt defeated Hal Weatherman 223-153 in the Lt. Governor’s race, and Jeff Jackson beat Dan Bishop for State Attorney General, 216-134.
The largest portion of Nash voters fell into the 46-65 age bracket — 201 voters, followed closely by 133 voters between the ages of 36-45.
The 18-25 year-old voters were among the fewest to vote with only 22 voters participating. Fourteen voters chose not to respond, with one voter stating that it was nobody’s “damned business.”
Racially, Nash voters were diverse, with 187 voters identified as African American/Black, 169 identifying as White, and a fair amount of voters who identified as either multiracial or other — 26 and 41 voters respectively. Twenty-two voters identified as Native American/Native Alaskan, 21 as Hispanic/Latino, and eight as Asian. Some of those identifying as other said they were Moorish-American.
What TNN was not able to ascertain was how those voters represented the overall population, meaning what percentage of each voter demographic bothered to vote at all. TNN requested the yard demographics, but did not receive this information. Therefore, comparing Nash voter turnout by certain categories to those on the outside was not possible.
What is known, however, is that Nash has the capacity to house 788 men. Currently, there are extra beds on each block, for a capacity of 864 residents in total. Add in the men in segregation, and Nash has 884 total possible voters, providing that every bed is full. That means that 55% of the overall prison population participated in the Mock Election, which far exceeded the percentage of free voters who showed up November 5 to vote in the national election.
Politically, Nash is a diverse community: 151 voters identified as Democrats, 140 identified as Republicans, and 120 identified as Independents.
This last category of Independents mirrors what some in the political analysis arena are seeing in the public. A large number of voters are seemingly unhappy with the direction of the two major political parties and are choosing to weigh the totality of the candidates in order to see who best represents their values.
Willis said he doesn’t like to make an early decision about who to vote for, choosing instead to wait and see how the candidates handle the complexity of the race. “People are subject to change the things they said early in the race or they might get tripped up in an interview,” he said. He also mentioned that the ads candidates use against each other would not necessarily change his decision. “I would have to investigate further if I heard something I didn’t like.”
Another interesting piece of data was the number of voters who admitted that they never voted prior to coming to prison; 232 men, almost 48% of the Nash voters, never voted. However, 271 said they were “very likely” to vote and 98 were “likely” to vote once released from prison. Encouragingly, 142 of those respondents will be getting out within the next five years.
Michael Kollman, a Nash resident who participated in the Mock Election, was one voter who admitted he never voted before coming to prison. But, he added, he was very likely to vote as soon as he is able. He is aware that a formerly incarcerated person can get their voting rights back upon completion of their sentence, and he looks forward to the opportunity.
Kollman said incarceration changed his opinion of the value of voting. “Before, I was too busy trying to get high to pay any attention,” he admitted. He said he is learning more about politics by discussing things with his father and witnessing how politics has affected the people in his family.
While most voters voted with their respective parties, TNN did notice another surprising trend. Independents split almost 50/50 with 55 voting for Trump and 53 voting for Harris. Libertarians and those identifying as other also split their votes. However, Trump did a better job of pulling self-identified Democrats away from Harris, than she did of pulling Republican voters over to her side. When comparing the number of votes received by Trump from those voters not identifying as Republican, and those same categories for Harris, Trump comes out ahead by one vote. While these numbers are modest here at Nash, those same numbers extrapolated throughout the state and national races might reflect why Trump was able to make such considerable gains in counties where he lost in 2020 against Biden.
The races for Governor, Lt. Governor, and State Attorney General closely reflected the outcomes of the voting results of the populace in North Carolina, leaving the presidential race as the only race where we differed from the final outcome of the 2024 elections.
Some voters used the comment section to express their appreciation for the event. One voter commented, “This is an interesting, uplifting experience. The staff at Nash goes out of their way for us [sic] inmates and it is very appreciated.”
Another wrote, “I believe America is the land of second chances. America should be the leader in showing mercy to people and give people the opportunity to get up and try again.”
North Carolina does not offer the incarcerated an opportunity to vote, but the formerly incarcerated can get their voting rights back as soon as they complete their post-release requirements and pay their fines and restitution.
So, it is interesting to ask how representatives and elected officials would act while in office if they knew incarcerated men and women were watching and had a say in whether or not they could keep their jobs.
While this was the first time a mock election was held in the NC prison system, the hope is that it will not be the last. The election of 2028 quickly approaches.
