The Legal Aid Society, together with a coalition of advocates, is demanding that the City provide greater access to early voting for incarcerated New Yorkers by opening polling sites inside local jails, as reported by the New York Daily News.

About 90 percent of those incarcerated at Rikers are eligible to vote because they are not currently serving a sentence for a felony conviction and are being held pre-trial or on a parole violation, or sentenced to misdemeanor offenses. The law requires “adequate and equitable access” to polling sites and that standard applies to incarcerated people.

Because those in pre-trial detention have not been given access to vote as mandated by law, and more than 88 percent of people incarcerated at Rikers are Black and Latinx, this practice effectively lowers voter participation in communities of color and disproportionately impacts people in those communities.

“Despite this legal mandate, those detained on Rikers effectively do not have access to any early voting site,” advocates write in a letter to the Board of Elections. “The lack of early voting options prevents detainees from being treated the same as every other New Yorker, leaving thousands of eligible voters without the option to vote early.”

“Bringing early voting locations to Rikers Island would offer those detained after the absentee application deadline an opportunity to vote, the letter continues. “It would also provide a much easier option for all people housed at Rikers to participate in elections.