S2215

TRENTON – Senator Wayne R. Bryant today said he was holding his bill on voting privileges, S-2215, to give Republicans time to understand what it would do.

“From what I’ve been hearing, the Republicans either don’t understand the bill or they’re playing political games,” said Senator Bryant. “I don’t want to play games with the right to vote.”

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senator Wayne R. Bryant which would allow people on parole and probation who are convicted of low-level indictable offenses to vote was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee today.

“In New Jersey, there has been a steady movement to increase the status of once-minor violations to indictable offenses,” said Senator Bryant, D-Camden and Gloucester. “While I do not have a problem with being tough on crime, indictable offenses also carry the additional punishment of disenfranchisement, which essentially results in banishment from participation in our great democracy. We need to ask ourselves at what point are these penalties too much.”