FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | November 2, 2010

CONTACT: Sean Barry, (646) 373-3344, barry@nycahn.org

New Yorkers On Parole Rally Outside Cuomoʼs Polling Site;

Urge Candidate To Support Voting Rights If Elected Governor

Advocates Speak Directly With Governor Paterson During Second Rally In Harlem

Mount Kisco, NY – A group of New Yorkers on parole rallied outside gubernatorial candidate
Andrew Cuomoʼs polling station in suburban Westchester early this morning, urging him to
restore voting rights for parolees if elected governor. About 41,000 New Yorkers on parole,
nearly 80% of who are African American or Latino, are denied the right to vote in New York,
despite a bipartisan national trend in reforms that have steadily expanded voting rights for
people with criminal records.

“Iʼve been giving back to my community since being released from prison,” said Hector Martinez,
a VOCAL New York member. “Iʼve got a family Iʼm taking care of and a son I want to see live in
a better community than the one he grew up in. But I donʼt have a say in who represents me or
my community because Iʼm on parole.”

Following the early-morning rally in Westchester, the group travelled to Harlem for a rally
outside Governor Patersonʼs polling station and spoke with him after he voted. VOCAL
members urged Governor Paterson to issue an executive order before he leaves office restoring
voting rights for New Yorkers currently on parole. The Governor indicated he would sign current
legislation but declined to commit to issuing an executive order.

Two state bills would accomplish the bill of restoring voting rights for parolees, which were
introduced by Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson and Assembly Member Daniel O'Donnell
(A2445/S4643) and Senator Eric Adams and Assembly Member Michael Benjamin
(A10217/S7546). More information about VOCALʼs campaign for voting rights, including photos
from todayʼs rallies, is available online at www.VotingRightsForNewYork.org.

Statements from elected officials and ally organizations:

"On a day when most Americans are exercising their all-important right to vote, hundreds of
thousands of American citizens are exclusively prohibited from taking part in this democracy.
When countless communities throughout the State are underrepresented due to parolee voter
  

disenfranchisement, it hurts us all and we as a State must progress past this policy rooted in the
Jim Crow mentality in which it
was authored. I urge whomever wins todayʼs elections to support legislation which would restore
the right to vote to over 41,000 'free' New Yorkers," said Assemblyman Keith Wright of Harlem.

"Voting rights for parolees is long overdue. These men and women are back in our communities
fully participating in job, educational, religious and community activities, and paying taxes; yet
they are still denied the full measure of their American citizenship. I will not rest until these New
Yorkers can freely exercise their right to vote." Assembly Member Michael Benjamin.

Erika Wood, Deputy Director at the Brennan Center for Justice, stated: "Our report, Jim Crow in
New York [http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/jimcrowny], makes clear that New
York's criminal disenfranchisement provisions were part of a concerted effort to exclude African
Americans from participating in the political process. It is time to end this history of
discrimination and restore the right to vote to New York citizens who are out of prison, living in
the community."

“We expect people on parole to work, pay taxes and follow the law. Shouldnʼt they be able to
have a voice on issues that effect them, their families and communities? What is a more basic
right in our nation than the power of the vote? As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, ʻWe know that
Americans of good will have learned that no nation can long continue to flourish or to find its
way to a better society while it allows any one of its citizens...to be denied the right to participate
in the most fundamental of all privileges of democracy - the right to vote,ʼ” said Anita Marton,
Vice President of Legal Action Center.

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VOCAL New York is a membership organization led by low-income people who are living with
and affected by HIV/AIDS, drug use and incarceration.