Most people on Rikers Island are eligible to vote. Thousands don't get to.

On a recent trip to Rikers Island, a small group of volunteers visited two dorm-style buildings to register eligible voters. After roughly three hours and dozens of one-on-one conversations, the volunteers collected 84 completed voter registration and absentee ballot application forms — enough for roughly 1.4% of the island’s likely eligible population.

That was a good day, according to the group.

Most people detained on Rikers Island are eligible to vote. But under New York City’s current system, thousands of them may not get a chance. As the election season intensifies, advocates are warning that this population in pretrial detention faces the risk of systematic disenfranchisement. They point to data indicating that in a recent primary, only a fifth of the people who requested ballots from Rikers ultimately had their votes counted.

“We’re a Band-Aid in a flood,” said Rigodis Appling, staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society and one of the volunteer voter outreach coordinators. “There’s tons of people who we’re just not getting to.”




https://gothamist.com/news/rikers-island-voting-election-2024