On the ballots of five states, a proposal to ban slavery and involuntary servitude as a punishment was presented. All states approved the prohibition except one.

Per The Associated Press on Wednesday (Nov. 9), Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont have approved measures banning prison labor. However, in Louisiana, voters rejected Amendment 7, asking whether they supported a constitutional amendment prohibiting involuntary servitude in the criminal justice system.

Activists against slavery celebrated the results and urged changing the U.S. Constitution — which bans enslavement and involuntary work. Unfortunately, more than 150 years after the United States ratified the 13th Amendment, the slavery exception still permits enslaved labor exploitation within prisons.

Bianca Tylek, an anti-slavery advocate and the executive director of the criminal justice advocacy group Worth Rises, said, “The 13th Amendment didn’t actually abolish slavery — what it did was make it invisible.” As she pointed out, the passage of the ballot initiatives, especially in red states like Alabama, “is a great signal for what’s possible at the federal level.”

Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley told the AP slavery has no exceptions and should be removed entirely. “Voters in Oregon and other states have come together across party lines to say that this stain must be removed from state constitutions,” he said. “Now, it is time for all Americans to come together and say that it must be struck from the U.S. Constitution. There should be no exceptions to a ban on slavery.”

The news outlet reports that over a dozen states still have constitutions that allow slavery and forced work. In addition, other states do not expressly prohibit or support forced prison labor. In 2018, Colorado became the first state to approve the removal of slavery exception from the state’s constitution — followed by Utah and Nebraska in 2020.

Below are photos of the state ballots proposing slavery bans: