LAWRENCE: Felons’ voting rights debated

by Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
   Charles Holman has a simple request. He wants to register to vote.
   But Mr. Holman, who lives in Trenton and who is a case manager at the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation, is presently prohibited by state law from registering to vote. He is a convicted felon, who has been placed on parole.
   Mr. Holman robbed a bar in Trenton, off Southard Street, in the late 1970s. He was sentenced to 25-plus years in prison for his part in the crime, but he was released on parole after serving about 15 years. He still has about 10 years left on parole.
   ”The only way I can get to vote is when I get off parole,” he told the Lawrence League of Women Voters at a special meeting Monday night at the Lawrence Branch of the Mercer County Library System.
   The Lawrence LWV scheduled the meeting to reach consensus on the New Jersey LWV’s study on voting rights of probationers and parolees.
   ”It reminds me of history,” the 61-year-old Mr. Holman said. “It’s the Boston tea party — taxation without representation. That’s what it is for me. The government takes my (tax) money, but I can’t have a say-so on who’s taking my money and how they are using it. It makes me feel bad.”
   Mr. Holman and Ed Martone, the director of public education and policy at the New Jersey Association on Corrections, were invited to speak to the Lawrence LWV as it considered its stance on the issue. The New Jersey LWV is studying the issue, and local chapters have been invited to comment on it.
   A majority of the Lawrence LWV — 15 of the 18 members present — agreed that voting rights should be restored to people convicted of a felony crime while they are on probation or on parole. Their report will be sent on to the New Jersey LWV for consideration at its convention in May.
   Mr. Martone and Mr. Holman supported taking away the right to vote from someone who has been convicted of voter fraud, but not from someone who has been convicted of another crime — especially if that person has taken steps to turn his or her life around.
   Lawrence League members Metta Cahill and Joan Tomlin, who serve on the local chapter’s Felon Voting Rights Study, explained the definitions of felony, probationer and parolee to the audience.
   A felony is a crime that requires imprisonment for more than six months, or a federal crime for which the punishment is death or imprisonment for more than one year, Ms. Cahill said.
   A probationer is someone who has been convicted of a criminal offense but whose sentence has been suspended, she said. The person is granted provisional freedom on the promise of good behavior.
   But a parolee is someone who has been sent to prison, but whose term has not expired, she said. The person is released on the condition of law-abiding behavior, and that person’s conduct is monitored by a parole officer for a period of time.
   New Jersey law bars anyone from voting “who is serving a sentence or who is on parole or probation as the result of a conviction of a felony in New Jersey or another state or the United States.” An offender may register to vote when he or she has completed a prison term, probation or parole.
   Of New Jersey’s 6.5 million voting population, 127,178 people — or 1.9 percent — cannot vote because they are either serving a prison sentence or they are on probation or parole, Ms. Cahill said.
   Considering the pros and cons of allowing convicted felons to vote, Ms. Tomlin said some people believe that felons should be given the right to vote once they complete their obligations. Efforts to block felons from voting are unfair, undemocratic and often politically or racially motivated, she said.
   Those who believe felons should not have the right to vote say it would be consistent with other restrictions, such as the inability of violent offenders to possess guns or for sex offenders to live near schools, Ms. Cahill said.
   But Felon Voting Rights Study member Christie McCoy said “it seems sensible” to integrate felons back into society once they have completed their sentences or probation or parole.
   Mr. Martone agreed and said his organization operates half-way houses to help integrate people back into society. Part of the reintegration process is to become part of the neighborhood — and one way is to register to vote, he said.