Typically the restoration process is a bureaucratic maze that requires the payment of fines or court costs. The process is so cumbersome, confusing, and onerous that many people who are theoretically eligible to vote never manage to get their voting rights back.54 Throughout much of the United States, people convicted of felonies are expected to pay fines and court costs, and submit paperwork to multiple agencies in an effort to win back a right that should never have been taken away in a democracy.
