New York [Residents on Parole] Are Registering To Vote, But Not Without Challenges

This election season, West Harlem resident Hilton Webb Jr., 62, will cast his vote for the first time since he went to prison in 1990 for a murder conviction. He is one of thousands of [individuals on parole] in New York whose voting rights were restored after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order in April.

“It makes me feel like I’m a part of this country,” said Webb, who was paroled earlier this year and now interns at The Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services.

Executive Order 181 opened the door for about 35,000 New York residents currently on parole for felony convictions to register, the governor’s office has said. Yet while [individuals on parole] and re-entry advocates report that [individuals with convictions] are registering, many are also encountering obstacles as the October 12 deadline looms.

“There’s a lot of misinformation,” said David Rothenberg, the founder of The Fortune Society, which has set up a voter registration table in the lobby of its Queens headquarters to help inform clients about their newly reinstated voting rights. The Fortune Society, which has worked with over 7,000 formerly incarcerated people so far this year, has registered about 400 people to vote, Rothenberg reported.