Opinion ID: 1380470
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: New York's Felon Disenfranchisement Laws

Text: The New York State Constitution requires the legislature to enact laws excluding from the right of suffrage all persons convicted of bribery or of any infamous crime. N.Y. CONST. art. II, § 3. New York statutory law prohibits convicted felons from voting while they are serving a prison sentence or while they are on parole following a prison sentence. N.Y. ELEC. LAW § 5-106(2). New York law, however, does allow felons to vote if they have completed their sentences, received suspended sentences, or never been sentenced to a term of imprisonment. Id. § 5-106(2), (5). Thus, a felon in New York is disenfranchised only until his maximum sentence of imprisonment has expired or he has been discharged from parole. Id. § 5-106(2). New York State's constitutional requirement of felon disenfranchisement dates back to the early nineteenth century. The Constitution of 1821 provided that [l]aws may be passed excluding from the right of suffrage persons who have been, or may be, convicted of infamous crimes. N.Y. CONST. of 1821, art. II, § 2 (emphasis added), reprinted in 1 Charles Z. Lincoln, The Constitutional History of New York 199 (The Lawyers Coop. Publ'g Co.1906) (hereinafter Constitutional History of N.Y. ). Similar language was included in the Constitution of 1846, except that the crimes of bribery and larceny were specified, along with convictions for any infamous crime. See 1 Constitutional History of N.Y., supra, at 233. An amendment adopted in 1874 required the legislature to disenfranchise felons at the next session, but stated that thereafter the provision would revert to being permissive rather than mandatory. See 1 id. at 296-97. [2] The Constitution of 1894, however, adopted the mandatory language, making it permanent. See 1 id. at 332. This same language, stating that [t]he legislature shall enact laws excluding from the right of suffrage all persons convicted of bribery or of any infamous crime, was moved to a different section in the Constitution of 1938 and continues to be in force to the present. See id.; N.Y. CONST. art. II, § 3 (emphasis added), Credits and Historical Notes. Thus, through Article II, § 3 of the New York State Constitution, the state legislature is required to enact laws disenfranchising felons. The current prisoner disenfranchisement statute is New York Election Law § 5-106. The statute provides in relevant part: No person who has been convicted of a felony pursuant to the laws of this state, shall have the right to register for or vote at any election unless he shall have been pardoned or restored to the rights of citizenship by the governor, or his maximum sentence of imprisonment has expired, or he has been discharged from parole. The governor, however, may attach as a condition to any such pardon that any such person shall not have the right of suffrage until it shall have been separately restored to him. N.Y. ELEC. LAW § 5-106(2). [3] Like the constitutional requirement that felons be disenfranchised, the felon disenfranchisement statute also has roots in the nineteenth century. See Ch. VI, tit. I, § 3, 1829 Rev.Stat. of N.Y., vol. 1 at 127; Act of April 5, 1842, ch. 130, § 3, 1842 N.Y. Laws 109. The felon disenfranchisement statute was briefly repealed in 1896, see Act of May 27, 1896, ch. 909, § 168, 1896 N.Y. Laws 893, 978, but then reenacted five years later, see Act of May 3, 1901, ch. 654, § 2, 1901 N.Y. Laws 1668, 1669. The law has continued to be in force, albeit subject to various amendments, since 1901. The most significant statutory change came in the early 1970s. Until that time the statute had disenfranchised all persons convicted of a felony, even those who had served their sentence or were not sentenced to a term of imprisonment. In 1971 and 1973, however, the legislature enacted laws amending the statute to its present scheme. Since then, felons have their voting rights restored if they: (i) are not sentenced to prison; (ii) have their prison sentence suspended; (iii) have completed their maximum prison sentence; or (iv) have been discharged from parole. See Act of May 25, 1971, ch. 310, § 1, 1971 N.Y. Laws 952, 952-53; Act of June 11, 1973, ch. 679, § 1, 1973 N.Y. Laws 1287, 1287-88.