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Q&A
Council Member Brewer questions CFB on voter education efforts at Rikers Island
3:06:20
·
3 min
Council Member Gale A. Brewer inquires about voter education and registration efforts at Rikers Island, with Amanda Melillo from the NYC Campaign Finance Board responding. They discuss the challenges of conducting voter outreach in the correctional facility and the current initiatives in place.
- CFB has one full-time staff member assigned to Rikers Island and coordinates with other agencies
- Materials are customized for detainees who can't access the internet
- Department of Correction is required to offer voter registration as part of their frontline services
- Despite efforts, voter participation at Rikers remains low, with only about 410 out of 5,000 eligible voters participating
Gale A. Brewer
3:06:20
Second, we're very supportive of doing more voter education at Rikers Island.
3:06:26
And so I'm just wondering, we've been trying to get a polling place.
3:06:30
We learned that's not possible because people are registered in their home location, blah blah blah.
3:06:35
But what can we do with some of your outreach workers to help?
3:06:38
I know, legal services has been trying.
3:06:41
You know, when you got, I'm making this up, 80% of your individuals there are not sentenced.
3:06:46
They're all eligible to vote.
3:06:48
But I believe, if I remember, memory is correct, think 410 out of so much effort either almost voted or did vote.
3:06:58
And so that's a very small number out of, what, close to 5,000.
3:07:02
So I'm wondering how we can do more to help get them registered and voting at Rikers.
3:07:26
How many people are you assigned there?
3:09:13
Yeah.
3:09:13
I'm just good that you're doing all that.
3:09:15
It's still very, very difficult.
3:09:17
is.
3:09:17
And I'm gonna say that we need to put extra effort into it.
3:09:21
I would like to see more.
3:09:22
We can talk further offline.
Amanda Melillo
3:07:09
Yes, that's a great question.
3:07:10
First I will start by saying that we do have staff from our partnerships and outreach team that routinely work with a coalition of organizations and government agencies to increase participation and engagement at Rikers to make sure that people are registering, getting their apps
3:07:28
We have one full time staff member assigned there and then we routinely coordinate with other city agencies, with the Department of Correction and with Elections as well.
3:07:39
The Board of Elections is also represented in those calls.
3:07:44
You know, I would say a few things about Rikers.
3:07:49
You know, we do our best to get voter education materials there.
3:07:53
We you know the detainees have very specific needs because they can't receive an internet connection, so we often will customize materials so that you don't need an internet connection, particularly in elections where we are only publishing a voter guide online, but we do distribute materials there.
3:08:13
I would also say that's highly dependent on the Department of Correction to be able to carry out.
3:08:19
And what I would say as a general rule is that I think the staffing there really try their best, but this is not their primary mandate.
3:08:28
So this is really sometimes a tricky area because I think they try to be good partners and we're all doing our best, but there's always more that can be done.
3:08:38
One other note I would have is the Department of Correction is a Local Law 29 agency.
3:08:43
They are required to offer voter registration as part of their frontline services.
3:08:47
We are required to give trainings to local law 29 agencies.
3:08:52
The Department of Correction also has additional requirements that the council passed and included in the city charter about the information that they have to give to detainees.
3:09:02
So we're always happy to work with you in particular on different ways that we can increase that education.
3:09:08
Because I think a lot of times the power of the mandate goes very far.
3:09:17
It