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Discussion on voting process at Rikers Island
4:21:34
ยท
5 min
Council Member Brewer inquires about improving the voting process for inmates at Rikers Island. Board of Elections officials explain the current absentee ballot process, legal constraints, and recent improvements in their approach.
- On-site voting at Rikers is not currently legal under state law; absentee ballots are the mandated method
- Board of Elections has become more actively involved in the process, working with the Department of Corrections
- For the November general election, 1,080 applications were received, 977 ballots issued, and 546 were received and counted
- Legal Aid Society has not sent complaint letters recently, suggesting progress in the process
Gale A. Brewer
4:21:34
Okay.
4:21:35
We can both work on that if that's okay with the chair because, we were successful in the Upper West Side, so I appreciate that in terms of going to a cultural institution.
4:21:44
Rikers Island.
4:21:45
I've written about this to you and you have responded.
4:21:48
I guess I'm still focused on it because I think, I don't know, last time there were I think 400 something that legal aid and others were able to get to vote, but it's hard because you have to go person by person by person.
4:22:00
And then as you know, it's a process with paper.
4:22:03
So I guess my question is, there is some notion that what you do with the nursing homes could be something that you do at Rikers.
4:22:13
I wanna know if there has been any other thought about what we can do, to improve the rate to which absentee ballots are cast.
4:22:21
It was a very slow process, as you know.
Michael Ryan
4:22:23
So with respect to replicate the nursing home process in a in a jail facility, those two things just don't marry up.
Gale A. Brewer
4:22:31
Alright.
4:22:31
Okay.
Michael Ryan
4:22:32
But that having been said, our operations manager, Georgia Consimantis, has really, taken the bull by the horns.
4:22:42
In the past, we understood that it was the corrections department's city charter responsibility, to conduct this process, and and we were kind of along for the ride.
4:22:57
We are much more, steeped in this process now than we had been in the past, and we are getting praise from the Legal Aid Society, for our efforts.
4:23:12
And so we no longer rely on the statistical data, provided by the by the Department of Corrections as, you you know, the measure of success or or or failure.
Vincent Ignizio
4:23:26
We've been an acting active participant in their monthly meetings as well, and so it's been it's been a much better relationship thanks to, our ops team who's done a great job.
4:23:35
And, Mike, I don't know if you wanna read off the
Michael Ryan
4:23:37
Sure.
4:23:38
And when we were discussing this earlier amongst ourselves, we're gonna give you numbers that there's no basis for comparison for because we didn't participate in keeping statistics like this in the past.
4:23:51
So if this establishes a baseline Okay.
4:23:53
Then that'll be something that we can discuss again in the future.
4:23:56
But we had 1,080 applications received.
4:24:04
And of those applications received, we issued
Gale A. Brewer
4:24:07
This is for November or last
Michael Ryan
4:24:09
Yeah.
4:24:09
For for last November.
4:24:10
November general election.
4:24:11
I I apologize.
4:24:12
And we can we can send this to you, you know, in writing as well.
4:24:16
But we had a 1,080 received.
4:24:19
A hundred and three were rejected as, code four.
4:24:23
Would that would mean that they had addresses outside of the city or state Okay.
4:24:27
And or were not registered at all, which happens from time to time.
4:24:32
We issued 977 ballots.
4:24:36
546 were received and counted.
4:24:41
Of the of the ones that were not received and counted, 375 were never received back by us, by by the board.
4:24:50
And then the rest of it is all double digit numbers.
4:24:53
12 were returned by the post office, 33 an additional 33 were not counted code four.
4:25:03
Eight were not counted with, due to no matching signature.
4:25:08
Two had no signed envelope, and one had no ballot in the envelope.
Vincent Ignizio
4:25:13
And to be clear, code four is felony conviction, so ineligible at the
Michael Ryan
4:25:16
time of Right.
4:25:17
Because that will happen too from time to time.
4:25:20
Somebody will be in Rikers Island, their case will conclude.
Sana Barakat
4:25:24
Right.
Michael Ryan
4:25:25
And then they become ineligible by virtue of a of a subsequent conviction.
Gale A. Brewer
4:25:29
Okay.
4:25:30
So I'm still going back to how can we have on-site voting at Rikers.
Michael Ryan
4:25:37
So we have conferred with the state board of elections.
4:25:42
It was our initial opinion, and we, conferred with the state board of elections on numerous occasions regarding this matter.
4:25:50
We do not believe it's legal under the present law to do, an on-site voting process and that the manner in which someone should vote is, by absentee ballot.
Gale A. Brewer
4:26:07
That's what happened.
Michael Ryan
4:26:08
Steeped in in in in, New York State statute, and the, we ran that by the State Board of Elections and they, agreed and said that that's the correct interpretation of
Vincent Ignizio
4:26:20
the law.
Michael Ryan
4:26:20
And it's been a long term interpretation and it was also, I think, laid out, in the letter that I provided to you.
Gale A. Brewer
4:26:27
Yes.
Michael Ryan
4:26:28
As a as a positive note, we were getting letters basically every year, from the Legal Aid Society for several years in a row, and we haven't received another such letter, since last February.
4:26:43
So I take that as a sign of progress.
4:26:46
You know, sometimes if if the complaining
Gale A. Brewer
4:26:49
stops hear you.
Michael Ryan
4:26:50
Don't You know, means that there's maybe some success.
Gale A. Brewer
4:26:52
They're calling me to call you too.
4:26:55
Okay.
4:26:55
So we we have to continue that conversation because it used to be they were, like, I don't know, 3,500 at Rikers.
4:27:01
Now it's over 6,000.
4:27:02
So there's a lot of voters there.
4:27:05
So we we continue the conversation.
Katrina Porter
4:27:07
It's great
Gale A. Brewer
4:27:07
to have a thousand people applying, but that's nothing close to say 5,000.