Witness to Mass Incarceration (WITNESS) is facilitating newly-eligible voters with their voter registration campaign. Formerly incarcerated people (FIP) have a significantly lower rate of voter registration than the general public. Remarkably, only one in four eligible FIP voters are registered. Most don’t know they have a right to vote, others are not involved in the political process. Another significant barrier is the criminalization of voting for FIP. A recent high-profile case is a woman from Texas named Crystal Mason. She received a 5 year sentence for voting in the 2016 election.
In 2021 New York state signed legislation to immediately and automatically restore the right of people on parole to vote in all elections. That means that any FIP is eligible to vote, even if they are on parole or probation, however they must re-register to vote.
For the 337,000 formerly incarcerated people living across New York state, we believe that we can overcome most of these obstacles by hiring FIP and allies to do the outreach. WITNESS will take advantage of the opportunity of Suitcase Sunday to have a number of its interns staffing voter registration tables at the event. Between now and when voter registration ends, we will make a formidable effort to register as many FIP as possible.
