The Vote in NYC Jails Coalition rallied outside the New York City Board of Elections (BOE) headquarters, calling on the BOE and the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) to ensure that every eligible voter incarcerated in city jails can cast a ballot that is counted.

Over 6,000 New Yorkers held at Rikers Island are eligible to vote. More than 92 percent of those detained are people of color, reflecting the deep racial disparities in the city’s criminal legal system. By neglecting to facilitate voting in jails, the BOE and DOC are effectively disenfranchising Black and Brown New Yorkers.

The BOE is legally responsible for guaranteeing ballot access for all New Yorkers, yet each election day, it fails detained voters by refusing to assist with registration or voting processes. The agency routinely rejects registration forms, absentee ballot requests, and completed ballots from eligible incarcerated New Yorkers. The DOC is not a designated voting agency and cannot independently administer a comprehensive jail voting program.

To achieve true voting equity, the BOE must establish polling sites in city jails. In-jail polling sites would ensure that ballots are not rejected, that voters can immediately correct any issues, and that all eligible voters can cast ballots during the full voting period. Given the high turnover of the jail population, polling sites would also prevent eligible voters from missing deadlines due to changes in their custody status.

“The Board of Elections’ persistent failure to provide meaningful ballot access for people incarcerated in New York City jails is not just bureaucratic neglect—it is a violation of fundamental democratic rights,” said Takeasha Newton, Lead Community Organizer with The Legal Aid Society’s Community Justice Unit.

“Every year, thousands of eligible voters are silenced because the BOE refuses to fix a system that does not work,” she continued. “Establishing polling sites in jails is the only way to ensure that no New Yorker is disenfranchised for being poor or detained pretrial.”

The coalition was joined in their election day action by New York Assemblymember Latrice Walker, Councilmember Tiffany Caban, Chris Alexander of NAACP, Victor Pate of The National Action Network (NAN), and Rev. Ron McHenry.