12 states permanently ban people from voting if they’ve ever been incarcerated for a felony, 18 bar them until they have completed a sentence and any probationary period.

There are 15 states with less restrictions on felon voting than Colorado — including Maine and Vermont, where convicts are not restricted from voting in any way, and are allowed to vote from prison.

In Aspen, Sheriff Bob Braudis and his deputies have always encouraged inmate voting. This year, 25% of the inmates there voted (3 out of 13):

“We are committed to making sure eligible inmates have the opportunity to vote,” Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis, who oversees the jail, said this week.....Pitkin County jailer Jim DeBerge solicited the voter-eligible inmates here before the Oct. 6 registration deadline. A 25-year veteran of the jail, DeBerge has coordinated inmate voting before, but he said this was the first time an outside group sent him information packets to help register inmates in a vote-from-jail campaign.

What about those pesky voter id requirements?

None of the men who voted from the jail had driver’s licenses or any of the identifying paperwork required to vote. But DeBerge printed their jail booking photos and information, which the Pitkin County Clerk and Recorder’s office accepted.

The inmates in Denver's county jail were not so lucky.

Denver County Jail tried the same thing for between 30 and 40 of its inmates who wanted to vote but did not have identification. They were rejected and not allowed to register, said Major Victoria Connors, who runs the 2,000-inmate facility.

In 2004, only 30 Denver inmates asked to vote. This year, 150 sought ballots. The jail holds 2,000 and Connors said about 400 are eligible to vote. Among those who voted:

One of their detainee voters, she said, was a man facing 19 felony accusations, likely convictions and the rest of his life in state penitentiaries.

“This is probably the last time he’ll vote in his life,” she said. “It makes you realize what a privilege it is that you’re taking away from people.”

Inmates in two of our Republican counties are less likely to receive voting cooperation:

In Arapahoe and El Paso counties, for instance, jail officials don’t inform inmates of their voting rights unless they ask.

Every vote counts. Here's information for California, which also allows those on probation to vote.

It would be nice if jails had polling places. Australia has "prison mobile teams" that let inmates vote while incarcerated.

One final reason to vote early: What if you get arrested this weekend or Monday and don't make bond by Tuesday?