Q&A
Coordination between Board of Elections and Department of Correction for inmate voting
1:02:35
ยท
3 min
Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the NYC Board of Elections, details the coordination efforts between the Board of Elections and the Department of Correction to facilitate voting for incarcerated individuals at Rikers Island.
- The Board has streamlined processes for the Department of Corrections, designating specific pickup and drop-off dates at the Queens office for absentee ballot applications and completed ballots.
- They've educated the Department of Corrections on specific provisions within the city charter regarding timeframes for performing this work.
- Suggestions were made to improve the process, such as adjusting the timing of distributing absentee ballot applications to account for the transient nature of the corrections population.
- The Board has been working with the Legal Aid Society to ensure their efforts are effective and to have additional oversight on Rikers Island.
Michael Ryan
1:02:35
I I can provide to you, I don't know if I have, I can provide to you our response letters, which we have done over the past, several years, and I will tell you that, and I'll I'll mention her name and she'll be mad at me, but Georgia Consimatis, has spearheaded, efforts with the New York City Department of Corrections where we have streamlined for them, their processes.
1:02:59
And so for example, they have the staff that they have, and they had been previously, hopscotching, to to use the term, around to all of our local offices, to, both deliver and receive, you know, deliver absentee ballot applications and receive, completed absentee ballots.
1:03:20
To make that more streamlined for the Department of Corrections, we have designated pickup and drop off dates at the queen's office, most adjacent to, Rikers Island.
1:03:33
And so all of our offices internally, transmit those documents via interoffice delivery, to the queen's office so that we have a single point of contact, for the Department of Corrections.
1:03:49
And that seems to have, been a, a much better, result from them.
1:03:54
We also, engaged in a little bit of education to the Department of Corrections, because there are specific provisions within the city charter that, and windows of time that the Department of Corrections has to perform, this work.
1:04:11
And we reminded them of that and also indicated to them
Gale A. Brewer
1:04:16
receptive to that reminding?
Michael Ryan
1:04:17
Absolutely.
1:04:18
We're receptive.
1:04:19
I I I can I can tell you, that our goal always, and we have various government partners, is to partner with our government agencies and and be, instructive where we can and to avoid, you know, shall we say, sniping at other agencies when they're trying to they're working hard to try to do, their jobs as well?
1:04:43
So we have worked with them, in that regard.
1:04:47
We made some suggestions which we think are also, they were receptive to and also will improve the process.
1:04:55
So, for example, if if they're having someone in January register to vote, they had a practice of also giving them an absentee ballot application at that time.
1:05:07
Well, given the transient nature of the, of the corrections population, that's not necessarily, a good idea unless you know that there's a a special election coming up, because that individual may very well no longer be, in the correctional facility at the time that the election happens.
1:05:25
So we reminded them of those windows of time when the absentee ballot applications should be, distributed on the island and then returned to us.
1:05:35
We have, data, and I know that miss Consumatis has has kept very specific data on this.
1:05:40
We'll be happy to share that with you, after the hearing is over and give you an update of our efforts.
1:05:47
But I can tell you, I think, at least from the feedback that we had, and we did have, at least one meeting that I attended and more, that, that staff, including miss Consummanis, has attended with, the Legal Aid Society, so that they understand, what we're doing, what our efforts are, and so that they can be, the eyes and ears, on Rikers Island to make certain that these efforts are bearing fruit.
1:06:13
I know that the process has improved.
1:06:16
I am certain that it will continue to improve and that there's room to grow, the process even more.
Gale A. Brewer
1:06:22
Okay.