The New York state legislature passed a bill last week that would automatically restore voting rights to people convicted of a felony once they are on parole.
The bill is intended to improve upon a 2018 executive order granting voting pardons to the 35,000 New Yorkers on parole, according to Assembly member Daniel O’Donnell, a co-sponsor of the bill. Currently, parolees must wait a period of four to six weeks to receive a pardon and then must register to vote on their own.
The legislation would restore voting rights at the time of release and would require Department of Corrections employees to provide parolees with a voter registration form.Some Republican assembly members argued that a felon’s debt to society isn’t paid until they finish parole, but the bill was ultimately passed with a Democratic majority in both chambers of the legislature.
The bill will be sent to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s desk, although there is no set timeline for when that will happen.
Keep paying for those votes
Just another way to commit voter fraud