In 46 states and the District of Columbia, ex-felons have to jump through various hoops before they can get their voting rights reinstated.

Four other states have policies that are a bit more cut-and-dried.

And over the past decade, over a dozen states have grappled with changes to their election laws for ex-felons.

In a related story, Congress.org took a broad look at the state of felon enfranchisement around the country. This piece takes a closer look at four states.

Vermont

The Green Mountain State's policy to leave intact a felon's voting rights, even in jail, traces back to 1796, when the Vermont legislature determined that lawbreakers could be disenfranchised. The lawmakers ultimately decided, in 1832, that the ruling was in violation of their state's bill of rights.

With its progressive reputation, it may seem like little surprise that Vermont, so early in its history, allowed incarcerated felons to vote.

But Alec C. Ewald, politics professor at the University of Vermont, said that the standard's centuries-old origin exempts it from the kind of political label it might be given today.

"What influenced them, more than 200 years ago, to reach a conclusion that still draws limited support today?" said Ewald of the early Vermonters. "Vermont has a culture that values political participation, and that has enabled the policy to survive. It preceded contemporary ideas about ‘left' and ‘right,' what we call 'political culture' … You can't trace the policy back to the contemporary 'blueness' of Vermont."

Fellow New England state of Maine also lets felons vote from prison. Utah and Massachusetts had similar policies up until 1998 and 2000, respectively: those years, state legislators opted to take away voting rights for felons while in jail, restoring them only after release.

Kentucky

Along with Virginia, Kentucky permanently strips felons of their right to vote for life. Though it's possible to apply for a pardon with the governor, the process has been in flux over the past decade.

In 2001, the state legislature passed a law to simplify the process for pardon applications, which involved requiring the Corrections Department to inform ex-felons of their right to appeal, and to give them the necessary materials to start that process.

But in 2004, the state's new governor reversed that law: all applicants were now forced to submit a formal letter justifying their request, along with three letters of recommendation.

A new gubernatorial administration in 2008 switched the law back to its former incarnation from the earlier part of the decade.

Phillip Sparkes, director of the Local Government Law Center at Salmon P. Chase College of Law, mentioned one way to explain why the ban on felon voting rights has remained in the state constitution since 1850.

"There's a very strong moralistic streak that runs through the body politic here," he said, "For example, the current hot issue debate in Kentucky right now is gambling … The disabilities attached to felony convictions is perfectly consistent with that kind of moral overtone."

Alabama

Ex-felons in Alabama can regain the right to vote, but it takes time.

Those who have completed their sentences for nonviolent crimes can apply for a "Certificate of Eligibility to Register to Vote" with the Board of Pardon and Paroles. Those guilty of more serious offenses, like murder, need to apply for formal pardons.

In 2003, an act was passed to speed along the process for responding to the thousands of applications coming before the Board. But historically, there have been no other serious moves towards overhauling the policy in either direction.

It dates back to a tradition of voting rights being a non-issue, said to Albert Brewer, who was governor of Alabama in the late 1960s and now teaches law at Samford University in Birmingham.

"There's always been an impetus by elected officials to be tough on criminals, and to have little empathy for lawbreakers, generally," he said.

"In the 1970s and 80s, being tough on crime involved using certain code words equated with racism," he continued. "I'm not sure if, today, it's all racially based, but there's still some of that there."

Such language would have been leftover from the post-Reconstruction era, when many of Alabama's laws that have since been overturned were designed to keep newly freed slaves from casting ballots.

In 2006, according to the Sentencing Project, one out of every seven African American adults in Alabama were barred from voting; in 2008, black residents were being disenfranchised at a rate of over 15 percent.

Washington state

Advocates of extending voting rights for ex-felons are hopeful in light of new developments in Washington state. 

In May of 2009, the Governor signed away a law that forced felons to repay all court costs and other retributions related to their convictions before they could vote again.

Then, last month, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Washington's law banning incarcerated felons from voting was racially discriminatory, violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Professor Larry Weiser and his students in the Clinical Law Program at Gonzaga University, partnered with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, worked on the case for 15 years.

They proved the presence of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system, Weiser explained, through testimony from experts in the fields of sociology, statistics, history, politics, and law.

"When I started this case, no one ever thought it would have been a good idea," said Weiser. "I think people are now starting to look at voting rights in a slightly different way, especially since the 2000 presidential election."

He was referring mainly to the situation in Florida, where the names of thousands of ex-felons who were eligible to vote in that election were wrongfully purged from voter rolls. It had to do with the backlog in processing countless applications from former prisoners applying to have their voting rights reinstated.

Florida has since streamlined its system to make re-registering more efficient.

Emma Dumain writes for Congressional Quarterly.