VOTING BEHIND BARS
Dems want to give prisoners, parolees the right to vote
TRENTON » New Jersey Democrats want to expand voting rights to 94,000 inmates, parolees and people on probation.
At a press conference at the Statehouse on Monday, four members of the New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus said they are proposing legislation to allow that group the right to vote.
“There is no relationship between voting and committing crimes,” said State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex), who is one of the bill’s cosponsors. “To disenfranchise those who have made mistakes and are paying for them is wrong.”
However, Republicans, who need to fight for every vote in the blue state that has a Democratic-controlled legislature and governor’s office, were quick to blast the proposal.
“Do we really believe that murderers and rapists who are serving prison sentences should be allowed to influence elections and public policy?” Senator Gerry Cardinale (R-Bergen) said in a statement, adding those who break the law are subject to a loss of certain freedoms. “We shouldn’t trust people who have demonstrated such bad judgment that they are removed from society with the responsibility that comes with voting. Let’s not forget that we restore voting rights once a person has paid their debt to society and proven themselves to be trustworthy following parole or probation. Our current system is reasonable, and it works.”
Since 1844, inmates, parolees and people on probation have been prohibited to cast a ballot.
Legislators in support of the bill feel the law discriminates against African-Americans since black people are twelve times more likely to be locked up than their white counterparts in New Jersey.
“New Jersey’s current law deprives a significant number of people — a population larger than the number of residents in this city, Trenton,” State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Hudson) said, noting 5 percent of the state’s black voting age population was without a vote because of a conviction in the 2016 presidential election. “Decades of racially discriminatory criminal justice policies and massive racial disparities and incarceration rates means that black residents are disproportionately denied the right to vote — a right that we as African-Americans fought very hard for.”
Currently, 16 states allow people who are on probation or parole the right to vote. New Jersey would join Maine and Vermont as the only states to allow incarcerated individuals the right to vote if the measure is approved.
“We permit people to retain other fundamental rights while incarcerated and handing out absentee ballots should be the easiest accommodation that we can make,” ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Sinha said. “We have to ensure that more people can vote.”
So far, the bill proposal has received the support of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Hoboken Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp, and Bloomfield Mayor Michael Venezia, along with more than 75 organizations, including the NAACP, the League of Women Voters of New Jersey and the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.
Sen. Rice said he has “reasonably high expectations” that Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy will follow suit, but said he hasn’t spoken with him yet.
“Governor Murphy believes that we are a better, stronger, and more representative democracy when more New Jerseyans participate,” Dan Bryan, a spokesman for the governor, said in an email. “He looks forward to working with the legislature to pass legislation that expands access to the ballot.”
Former inmates who are now social advocates threw their support behind the proposed legislation.
Tracey Syphax, a prominent city resident who had multiple convictions for drugs and weapons and was recently granted clemency from former Gov. Chris Christie, said he made a vow when he left prison in 1993.
“I was not only going to change my life but I was going to make a better life for those who are coming behind me,” the entrepreneur and author said. “We have a right not only to vote but we have a right to live our lives out. We should have an input, we should have a say who gets to make those laws.”
Ron Pierce, a convicted murderer who served more than 30 years in prison and was released last year, also believes he should be given a right to vote.
“I have been without a voice in my democracy for decades,” said Pierce, a current Rutgers student who last voted in 1985. “For people who are incarcerated, voting also has a potential of being an effective means of rehabilitation ... I look forward to the day I can walk again proudly into the voting booth, cast my ballot and stand side-byside with my fellow community members knowing that my voice matters.”