Letter to Albany County Board of Elections Regarding Wrongful Purges of Voters with Felonies

A voter who contacted our Restore Your Vote hotline learned that she had been wrongfully removed from her county’s registration list because of her felony conviction – even though she had been eligible to vote for several years and Gov. Cuomo signed an executive order restoring voting rights to residents with felony convictions following their release from prison. This error cost her the ability to participate in the historic 2018 midterm elections. After the Albany County Board of Elections ignored our record requests regarding the voter’s removal, we wrote them with recommendations for how they can avoid these errors in the future. We also sent a copy to the New York State Board of Elections, and wrote another letter to Gov. Cuomo, urging him to support legislation that would codify his executive order under state law.