NEW YORK FOR FULL RESTORATION OF VOTING RIGHTS COALITION

Re: Full voting rights restoration for incarcerated people

Dear New York State Legislators, 

We write to strongly urge you to ensure that New York State restores full voting rights for incarcerated people as set forth in the Senate under bill S316 and in the Assembly under bill A00412. The practice of felony disenfranchisement has a long and odious history. In New York, the first constitutional article that denied people convicted of a felony the right to vote was adopted in response to the Emancipation Proclamation to prohibit formerly enslaved people from voting. Stripping them of their legal status as citizens was intended to render them politically powerless. This legislative intent highlights the fact that Jim Crow law is embedded in New York’s Constitution.

Approximately 80% of New York’s prison population is composed of Black and Latinx people. It is not because Black and Latinx communities are more prone to criminality than their white counterparts, rather it is because of structurally racist law enforcement practices and policies that target these communities. This has not only resulted in individuals being sent to prison, but it ultimately has also disenfranchised these communities by weakening their voting power through felony disenfranchisement.

Felony disenfranchisement has absolutely no bearing on one’s redemption or public safety. Indeed, denying the right to vote to incarcerated people weakens our democracy and undermines the social fabric of communities already traumatized by structural racism and high rates of incarceration. Restoring voting rights to incarcerated people can strengthen both their ties to society and commitment to the common good, thus promoting legally responsible participation in civil society.

The scope of the damage caused by felony disenfranchisement cannot be ignored or tolerated. As various disenfranchisement practices are cropping up in Southern states like Georgia and Florida, we cannot afford to allow the continuation of Jim Crow laws in New York. Similar to the international community that is overwhelmingly hostile to felony disenfranchisement practices, states like Maine and Vermont, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico prohibit this practice. It is instructive to note that the demonstrative signal that apartheid had ended in South Africa came when incarcerated people were finally granted the right to vote.

Our clarion call is clear: The right to vote is inherent to our democracy! Voting rights should not stop at the front door of a prison. As you continue to seek ways to best serve our democracy, we urge you to make the business of eliminating this Jim Crow law from our state a top priority.