American Civil Liberties Union of Washington

The ACLU represented an individual seeking a Certificate of Discharge (COD) to restore voting rights lost due to a prior felony conviction. The individual had completed all terms of his sentence by October 2001, entitling him to automatically receive a COD. He did not learn about it until 2004. The ACLU filed a motion for a COD on his behalf in 2008 and argued that the effective date the discharge should be October 2001. The court agreed and granted the COD effective October 2001.