Voting rights could be restored to New Jersey prisoners and people on parole, probation

Roughly 94,000 New Jersey residents are prohibited from voting because they are serving prison sentences or are on probation or parole, but that could change under a bill introduced Monday by Democratic lawmakers.

The legislation would repeal a law first conceived when slavery was legal in New Jersey and that supporters say drains political power from communities of color, which are disproportionately represented in the state’s prison population.

"The fundamental problem is the linking of voting rights and a criminal justice system characterized by gross racial disparities," said Sen. Sandra Cunningham, a Hudson County Democrat and one of the bill's primary sponsors. "It is that fundamental problem we must address."

Should the bill become law, New Jersey would become the third state, after Maine and Vermont, to restore full voting rights to people with convictions. Under the measure, people in prison would be eligible to vote by mail-in ballot in the district where they lived immediately before incarceration.

Read more: https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2018/02/26/inmates-voting-nj-could-restore-voting-rights-prisoners-people-parole-probation/372788002/