Q&A
Challenges in establishing polling sites at Rikers Island and current absentee voting process
1:06:22
·
177 sec
Council Member Gale A. Brewer and Michael Ryan discuss the challenges of establishing polling sites at Rikers Island and the current absentee voting process for incarcerated individuals.
- Ryan explains that the Board of Elections has streamlined the process for handling registration issues and absentee ballots for incarcerated individuals through internal delivery processes.
- The improved communication and integrated effort between the Department of Corrections and the Board of Elections has led to a marked improvement in the voting process for incarcerated individuals.
- Establishing a polling site at Rikers Island would require state legislation due to the current law providing for an absentee ballot process for incarcerated individuals.
- The transient nature of the incarcerated population presents challenges in establishing traditional polling locations based on election district and assembly district models.
- The State Board of Elections has confirmed that the current interpretation of the law, which provides for absentee voting for incarcerated individuals, is correct.
Gale A. Brewer
1:06:22
Okay.
1:06:22
One if there's a problem, because obviously people may not be living, you know, people have different addresses, you can see this is a population that has a challenge just filling out a form.
Paul Seamus Ryan
1:06:31
So if there are problems with the registration, how do they
Gale A. Brewer
1:06:31
get it fixed, so to speak?
1:06:32
Does nonprofit that's working with them?
1:06:35
Or because that that I could just see all challenges along the Right.
1:06:37
I'm staying with my uncle, I'm staying with my sister, etcetera.
1:06:42
Right.
1:06:42
So
Michael Ryan
1:06:49
the way the process works is whatever we're gonna send back, to Rikers Island goes through that internal delivery process that we've established.
1:06:57
So for example, if somebody forgot to sign their voter registration form, we would have to, process a missing signature letter.
1:07:06
Rather than do that and just simply mail it to Rikers Island, where they may or may not be, we have it, redelivered back through that process, the same way that we would do, with an absentee ballot application or a completed absentee ballot pro package.
1:07:22
So that's that's how we're doing that.
1:07:23
We've streamlined that.
1:07:25
There's, much more communication.
1:07:29
I would say that heretofore, the Department of Corrections and the Board of, Elections were more or less operating as, separate entities doing their own.
1:07:38
So Yeah.
1:07:39
Kind of doing their own thing.
1:07:40
We were doing what we were supposed to do, but having that, integrated effort, certainly has improved the process.
1:07:48
And I'd be interested to hear what the post election feedback, from the Legal Aid Society is to see if they, share our view, that there was a marked improvement.
1:07:58
It seems to be from our end.
Gale A. Brewer
1:07:59
No.
1:07:59
I think it's improved.
1:08:00
The issue is if we were to get a polling site, that would require state legislation to change how
Michael Ryan
1:08:05
Yeah.
1:08:06
Yes.
1:08:06
Our position has been, and it's been it's been for the last number of years, that the state law provides, for an absentee ballot process
Gale A. Brewer
1:08:17
I understand that.
Michael Ryan
1:08:18
For, for those who are incarcerated.
1:08:22
Now when when you look at the way that we have to establish, polling locations, they're established on an election district and assembly district model.
1:08:34
That does not speak well, or or translate, well, I should say, to a transient population where individuals could come, from anywhere, in the 5 boroughs of New York City.
1:08:48
But be that as it may, we do not believe and the state board of elections, we've checked it and double checked it to make sure that we're just not simply being resistant for the sake of resistance.
1:08:58
We've checked with the state board of elections, and we have received guidance that our interpretation is correct and that, the manner in which individuals who are incarcerated to vote, the matter that's provided by law, is the absentee ballot process.
Gale A. Brewer
1:09:12
Alright.
1:09:12
We'll keep working on that.
1:09:13
Thank you very much, mister chair.
Lincoln Restler
1:09:15
Thank you so much.
1:09:15
Thank you.
1:09:16
Council member Brewer, we'll go to council member Menon, then council member Shulman.
