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Over the past six months the ACLU-NJ has engaged in outreach and education around ex-offender voting rights. Although individuals who have completed their criminal sentences in New Jersey have a right to vote, many are not aware of this right or how to secure it.
The ACLU-NJ’s Ex-Offender Voting Rights Education Project brings the message to ex-offenders by making presentations at locations and programs throughout New Jersey that serve ex-offenders. The presentations are delivered by Zenon Quiles, an ex-offender himself, who educates the participants on their right to vote, how to register and why voting is important.
Each state determines its own voter eligibility, and the policies affecting offenders vary from state to state. They range from Vermont and Maine, where people can vote while in prison, to Florida and eleven other states where voting rights are permanently eliminated after conviction of a felony.
Ex-offenders in New Jersey can vote once they complete their sentences but not while in prison or on probation or parole.
Discrimination in the criminal justice system has resulted in disproportionate numbers of African-Americans and Latinos losing their right to vote. In New Jersey, African Americans make up about 13-percent of the general population and 60-percent of the prison population.
The ACLU-NJ has worked closely with the State Parole Board which recently issued a directive requiring that all parolees are provided with a voter registration form and instructions at the completion of parole. The Department of Corrections has expressed willingness to do the same.
A key tool for our project is the ACLU-NJ 2004 How-To Kit for Ex-Offenders which we distribute statewide.
In addition to this project, the ACLU-NJ has a lawsuit pending that challenges the denial of the right to vote for people on probation and parole. We argue that because of the vast overrepresentation of minorities in the criminal justice system, denying people not incarcerated the right to vote violates the New Jersey Constitution’s guarantee of Equal Protection under the law.
We are always looking for new venues for outreach on ex-offender voting rights. Contact Project Director Anne Barron at vote@aclu-nj.org or by calling the ACLU office 973-642-2086 with suggestions or requests for presentations.
- By Anne Barron, Ex-Offender Voting Rights Project Director
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