Legislation To Be Introduced to Restore Voting Rights to People with Convictions

Legislators, mayors, & more than 75 organizations support the restoration of voting rights to people on parole, probation, and in prison

WHEN: Monday, February 26 at 11 a.m.

WHERE: Statehouse, Room 103, 125 W. State St., Trenton, NJ

RSVP: Please contact Institute Communications Director Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg at ewgreenberg@njisj.org or at 917-273-7088.

On February 26 at 11:00 a.m., Senator Ronald L. Rice, Senator Sandra Cunningham, Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter, and the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice will host a press conference to announce the introduction of legislation to end New Jersey’s practice of denying the right to vote to people with criminal convictions. Mayor Ras Baraka (Newark), Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla (Hoboken), Mayor Steve Fulop (Jersey City), Mayor Adrian Mapp (Plainfield), and Mayor Michael Venezia (Bloomfield), along with more than 75 organizations have signed on in support of restoring the right to vote to people with convictions, including those on probation, on parole, or in prison.

Joining Senator Rice, Senator Cunningham, Assemblywoman Sumter, and the Institute at the press conference will be:

• Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla of Hoboken
• Institute CEO and President Ryan Haygood
• League of Women Voters of New Jersey Executive Director Jesse Burns
• NAACP NJ State Conference President Richard Smith
• Rev. Charles Boyer, Bethel AME Church
• ACLU Executive Director Amol Sinha
• Institute Intern Ron Pierce, who is denied the right to vote
• Entrepreneur and author Tracey Syphax
• Institute Associate Counsel Scott Novakowski