Q&A
Voting process for incarcerated individuals at Rikers Island
1:00:48
·
106 sec
Council Member Gale A. Brewer inquires about the voting process for incarcerated individuals at Rikers Island, particularly regarding the establishment of polling sites and voter registration.
- Michael Ryan explains that incarcerated individuals don't have the option to choose where they vote, unlike college students who can vote either at home or their college location.
- New York State law provides for incarcerated individuals to vote by absentee ballot.
- The New York City charter has a program through the Department of Corrections to facilitate voting for eligible incarcerated individuals.
- Ryan emphasizes that many of the approximately 6,000 individuals at Rikers Island are eligible to vote, and efforts are being made to increase voter participation among this population.
Gale A. Brewer
1:00:48
So I am interested in Rikers Island.
1:00:51
I know that we spoke, and I understand there is, issue about putting any kind of a polling site there because people are not residents.
1:00:59
And but what I don't understand is, like, if my kid goes to a college upstate, I mean, he can vote in Binghamton, but he I guess I don't know.
1:01:08
I don't think of him as a resident there.
1:01:10
He's 4 years, and then he's coming home.
1:01:12
So I guess my question is, can you explain about the polling site issue?
1:01:16
And then, also, the group that's been working on trying to get people registered there deserves huge accolades.
1:01:21
Accolades.
1:01:22
They're really working hard.
1:01:22
So I wanna know between you and the and the, Department of Correction and how is the coordination taking place?
1:01:27
Because we do need to get all those people, many of them of the 6,000, are eligible to vote, as we know.
1:01:31
So the question is, how do you get the many of them of the 6,000 are eligible to vote as we know.
1:01:37
So the question is, how do we get more of them to vote?
1:01:39
What are you doing about that?
Michael Ryan
1:01:41
Alright.
1:01:41
So I'll take your the first part of your question first.
1:01:45
Where a voter is registered is largely up to the voter.
1:01:50
So if a, if one if someone's child went to college, they'd have 2 options.
1:01:55
They could either vote from home, where they are, and vote by absentee, or they could vote, upstate, New York, let's use that as an example, by registering to vote in the county in which, they are present.
1:02:10
So that's up to the individual voter.
1:02:15
Individuals that are being held on record, because I don't have that option.
1:02:19
And so the New York State law provides for incarcerated individuals to, vote by absentee ballot, and the New York City charter has a program, that through the Department of Corrections.
