Crime Committee Report e.indd - New York State Senate

In Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533 (1964), the Supreme Court held that state legislative districts
must represent a roughly equal number of people. Affirming the “one person, one vote” principle,
Chief Justice Warren minced no words in his celebrated opinion, writing, “Legislators
represent people, not trees or acres. Legislators are elected by voters, not farms or cities or economic
interests. As long as ours is a representative form of government, the right to elect legislators
in a free and unimpaired fashion is a bedrock of our political system.” The Census Bureau’s
current methodology undermines the “one person, one vote” principle supported by prevailing
public values as well as constitutional jurisprudence. The Census Bureau’s current methodology
also violates the New York State law in two ways: it runs afoul of the New York State Constitution
which states in Article 2, section 4 that for the purpose of voting, “no person shall he deemed to
have gained or lost a residence ... while confined in any public prison”; Similarly, subdivision 1 of
section 5-104 of the New York Election Law directs that “For the purpose of registering and voting
“no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence...while confined in any public
prison. In addition, the 1894 New York Court of Appeals decision in People v Cady, 37 N.E. 673
(N.Y. 1894), stated that people in prison could not be considered residents of the prison where
they are incarcerated. Based on federal and state law, people in prison therefore remain legal
residents of their address prior to incarceration. Unfortunately, the current Census Bureau’s
methodology disregards this, instead counting a significant proportion of the national population
in the wrong place. Crediting the population of prisoners to the Census block where they
are temporarily and involuntarily held creates electoral inequities at all levels of government.
These electoral inequities are apparent in New York State, where with a prison population of
approximately 60,000, over 75% of people in prison are people of color and over 70% are from
urban communities. Thus, urban communities such as Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Rochester,
and Syracuse are being counted for the purposes of redistricting in rural communities,
leading to vote dilution for urban communities of color across the state. The most significant
vote dilution, however, in rural communities as most counties, cities, and towns use federal
census data to draw their local legislative district and ward boundaries. St. Lawrence County,
in northern New York, drew legislative districts with Census 2000 data that included more than
3,000 people in three correctional facilities as if they were actual residents of two small towns,
Ogdensburg and Gouverneur. The increased voting power of Ogdensburg and Gouverneur
residents diluted the votes in the many St. Lawrence County residents who do not live near
those prisons. This inequity created a long-running and disruptive controversy in St. Lawrence,
and a petition opposing the unequal representation gathered more than 2,000 signatures.
County legislators and supervisors in 13 counties in New York State hav subtracted the prison
population from the official count prior to drawing county legislative districts or designing weighted
voting systems to ensure equal representation and avoid creating a legislative districts that have
more people in prison than actual residents. The counties that have corrected the census data to
remove people in prison before redistricting include: Cayuga, Chemung, Clinton, Dutchess, Essex,
Franklin, Greene, Orange, Orleans, Schoharie, Sullivan, Washington, and Wyoming.
Standing Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Correction | 2009-2010 Report 51