Mayor Liz Lempert and members of the Princeton Council this week joined a movement to give prison inmates in New Jersey the right to vote.
On April 23, council members passed a resolution in favor of changing state law and giving back inmates and parolees or those on probation for a felony their right to vote. At the moment, individuals in all three categories are barred from voting in New Jersey.
The resolution states, in part, that there are more than 94,000 people in the state who are denied the right to vote, and that “half of all disfranchised people in our state are black, even though black people make up only about 15 percent of New Jersey’s population.”
Lempert will join the mayors of Newark, Hoboken and Jersey City, and groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP in signing a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy and leaders in both houses of the Legislature calling for action.
Legislation has been introduced to change the existing law. State Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham (D-Hudson County), a sponsor of a Senate bill, could not be reached for comment.
During a press conference on April 23, Lempert said she supports changing the law “because I think it’s important for our democracy to work that more people participate in the process and are able to vote. I mean if it’s in your benefit for more people to vote, maybe that benefits the Democrats right now. I don’t know if that can always be said to be true.”
Lempert, a Democrat, said that in a lot of states controlled by Republicans, officials are making it more difficult for people to vote, with voter identification requirements.
This is not the first time Lempert has waded into an issue impacting ex-cons. In 2014, she supported changing state law to prohibit employers of companies with 15 or more employees from asking job-seekers about their criminal history.
Princeton subsequently eliminated the criminal history question on its job applications, although it does check after making a conditional offer of employment.
“I think part of it is like how do you view the role of prisons and what are sort of the societal considerations,” Lempert said. “I think most people in prison are not going to be there for the rest of their lives.
“They are serving a set term and I think you have to ask yourself what’s in the best interest of the society and the community, to rehabilitate that person or a combination of punishment and rehabilitation, so when a person gets out of prison they are able to go back to being a functioning member and a contributing member of the community,” she said.
Council President Jenny Crumiller, a fellow Democrat who also favored changing the law, said she was troubled that minorities in the United States are imprisoned at a higher rate per capita than non-minorites. She called it a “basic human right” to vote.
“I don’t want to pass on that prejudice in the (criminal justice) system into the voting system,” she said. “So I think everyone has an equal right to justice and everyone has an equal right to vote.”
State Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer, Hunterdon), who is Princeton’s municipal prosecutor, had no comment when asked his view on the proposed legislation.