AUGUSTA – Prison reform advocates say 4 million Americans are being denied the right to vote because they are behind bars.

But Maine is one of two states, along with Vermont, where that’s not the case.

Inmates in Maine’s prisons are free to vote by absentee ballot, and some officials see heightened interest in casting ballots by some prisoners as Election Day 2004 draws closer.

“Quite a few of them show interest,” said Francine Bowden, who makes registration applications, absentee and sample ballots available to inmates in the Maine Correctional Center in Windham.

But whether those inmates follow through and actually send in absentee ballots is unknown, said Bowden, librarian at the minimum- and medium-security prison in Windham.

“Some are very interested in getting exactly what papers they need to vote,” said Bowden. “They want to make sure they follow all the steps.”

In Vermont, Prisoners’ Rights Office lawyer Seth Lipschutz said he did not know what percentage of that state’s inmates vote.

“It’s not something that we track. It’s their legal right. I’m sure some Vermont inmates engage in [voting],” Lipschutz said.

In Maine and Vermont, prisoners may vote by absentee ballot in the town or city where they last lived prior to incarceration.

“The rationale behind that is I think in small Vermont towns, if all the prisoners in a town where a prison is got to vote, they could potentially take over the town, or at least have a major impact,” Lipschutz said.

Parolees and those on probation may also vote in the two New England states.

Felons in prison are barred in all 48 other states from voting, but in most they automatically regain their voting rights upon completion of their sentences, according to the Sentencing Project.

However, the prison reform advocacy group says 35 states bar felons on probation or parole from voting, and in 14 states a felony conviction can result in a lifetime ban long after the completion of a sentence.

Legal bars to voting by felons combined with racial disparities in the criminal justice system affects black men especially, the Washington, D.C.-based sentencing group says.

Federal figures show 68 percent of America’s prison and jail inmates last year were members of racial or ethnic minorities.

The widow of Martin Luther King Jr. took up the issue during a recent visit to Maine. Speaking at an NAACP event, Coretta Scott King said voting rights should be open to everyone in a democracy – including convicts.

King also said ending disenfranchisement of convicted felons is part of the unfinished business of the civil rights movement. The issue is alive in legislatures in Maine and other states.

In 2000, Massachusetts voters passed a constitutional amendment barring prisoners from voting. Similar proposals have been debated and rejected in Maine as recently as the legislative session that ended earlier this year.

Rep. Stan Gerzofsky, arguing against the proposal, said most inmates are going back home sooner or later, and voting helps to keep them connected to their communities.

“Maine [often] leads the nation in voter participation, and that’s why we don’t take away people’s right to vote,” said Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, and a former state prison industries official.

An opponent, Sen. Richard Bennett, sees a contradiction between arguments by the other side that voting keeps inmates connected to their towns, even though they acknowledge that the number of inmate voters appears to be quite small.

The Norway Republican also questions the need to protect voting rights for “people who are being punished for murder, robbery and infringing on other people’s rights. It really boils down to the principle of the thing.”

While the Maine Civil Liberties Union and Maine Council of Churches both support the state’s current law, neither has taken a proactive role in registering inmates in the state prison system, whose population last year exceeded its capacity of 1,800.

But some groups are doing so in other states.

In Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh-based charity called Just Harvest has been registering inmates for the Nov. 2 election. While jailed felons can’t vote in that state, people in jail awaiting trial or doing time for misdemeanors or failure to pay fines can do so.

South Carolina has added information to state offenders’ handbooks to inform them that their voting rights are automatically restored upon completion of their probation or parole.

The Sentencing Project, which says more than 4 million Americans in prisons can’t vote, works with civil rights and civil liberties organizations to end what it sees as disenfranchisement policies.