James Cyr really wants to see President Donald Trump voted out of office on Election Day. But because he is incarcerated for a felony, he can’t vote in the upcoming election — not technically, at least.
Cyr will still have a say, however, thanks to Amherst resident Stephanie Higgins, who for the past two years has been talking to Cyr about who he wants to vote for and will use her vote to honor his wishes. They’re known as “voting partners.”
“A lot of people have been harassing me about whether I’m voting or not,” Higgins said of the presidential election. “I just was pretty public about don’t bother trying to convince me — the only person deciding how I’m going to vote is my voting partner.”
She’s one of about 10 people in Hampshire County who have agreed to “donate” their votes through the Emancipation Initiative, a Massachusetts activist group, to someone incarcerated for a felony — which in Massachusetts makes you unable to vote.
Cyr, 50, is serving a life sentence at MCI-Norfolk for a first-degree murder that happened in Sunderland in 1993. He was excited when he heard he would get the chance to vote through Higgins.
“When the Emancipation Initiative offered its Donate your Vote program, I jumped at the chance to participate and potentially connect with individuals of similar political and philosophical beliefs,” he wrote in an email to the Gazette.
The Emancipation Initiative was founded by Derrick Washington, who is incarcerated in Massachusetts, and Donate your Vote started in 2016.
“He really cared about the election and sees prison as an extension of slavery where he doesn’t get to have a say even though the government controls every aspect of his life,” said Elly Kalfus, an organizer with the group who lives in the Boston area.
When incarcerated people sign up for Donate your Vote, they explain why they want to participate, said organizer Khadejeh Al-Rijleh, who also lives in Boston. Among the reasons they give include “to have my voice heard or … be able to make a positive impact for oneself, community,” she said.
Relationship building is also important, Al-Rijleh said. “To some extent, who you vote for, it’s part of it, but (it’s also) that people build these relationships … with people on the outside.”
This election, Cyr instructed Higgins to vote for Joe Biden.
“Not so much because he was my first or second choice (Mayor Pete was after Bernie) but more because I am appalled by the utter lack of decency and corruption occurring within the Trump administration,” Cyr wrote.
Cyr also cares about immigration issues, as his mother immigrated to the U.S. in the 1960s from Colombia.
“The dearth of empathy for the immigrant plight in our world has me and my friends in here utterly baffled at the state of our society as a whole,” he wrote.
Higgins is not enthusiastic about voting, so donating her vote makes sense, she said.
“I’ve never found great delight in voting,” she said, explaining why she is donating her vote. “I think our options are not great. I’ve never felt good voting for anybody. Also, I know it means so much to him that it doesn’t make sense to exercise it on my behalf … For him it’s very important. To me, it’s not an act of charity, it’s like, ‘well, I’m not using this,’ and I know it means a lot to you.”
And, she added, “I’ve managed to get a friend out of it.”
It might be more difficult for Higgins if Cyr had different politics.
“If my partner voted a certain way, I might be less excited about participating,” she said, adding that in a way, she got lucky because “we share a lot of values.”
Cyr doesn’t have internet access and gets news from TV. Higgins offers to do research for him and copy articles into the letters she sends. They regularly exchange messages and talk about more than just upcoming elections.
Cyr remembers voting in the 1996 presidential election before the law changed — it’s one of many losses he is feeling in prison.
“One of the benefits to coming to prison for life, is that it often puts life in vivid perspective,” he wrote. “It wasn’t long after I entered prison that I realized how much of my life and liberties I often took for granted.”
It hasn’t always been the case that those serving time for felony convictions in Massachusetts are not allowed to vote — the right was taken away in 2000. Last year, Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, introduced a bill that would restore that right.
Those who are incarcerated for reasons other than felonies are able to vote, given they are 18 or older and U.S. citizens.
But, there is often “de facto disenfranchisement,” of these voters, reads a Sept. 30 letter to William Galvin, secretary of the commonwealth, sent from Emancipation Initiative, Common Cause Massachusetts, ACLU of Massachusetts, Prisoners’ Legal Services, and dozens of other groups around the state. Issues like not having access to the internet or voting materials like absentee ballot applications can make it difficult for them to vote, the organizations said.
They are also “specially qualified voters,” meaning, they can request an absentee ballot without registering to vote, but that’s not clear to all local election officials, the letter says.
The letter urges Galvin’s office to “issue clear guidance to systematize and secure access to the ballot for those who maintain their right to vote while held in state custody.” His office did issue guidance in an Oct. 7 election advisory.
Northampton resident Danielle Squillante got involved with the Emancipation Initiative and is working with the Hampshire County Jail and House of Corrections to get information to people about voting. They made posters and compiled information about candidates. “A lot of people aren’t casting ballots because they don’t know they can,” she said.
Not allowing some who are incarcerated to vote is confusing, said Al-Rijleh. “Just that some people are disenfranchised ends up causing other people to think they are also disenfranchised.”
That was the case in the Hampshire County Jail. Janet Kline, a paralegal in the law library, has worked at the jail for two years. She has been working to get voting information out about the upcoming election by putting up posters, providing people with the forms that they need to request ballots, and talking to them about voting.
“I would say 60% didn’t think they could vote,” she said of those she has spoken with. “A lot of them thought if they had ever been convicted of a felony they couldn’t vote … That was a misunderstanding they had.”
One person who Kline talked to got emotional when he learned he could vote
“He just never thought he could vote,” she said, adding that he had a past felony conviction. “He was very excited to have a voice. He was going to call his family to let him know he could register to vote.”
Another person’s father owns a car shop, and cares particularly about Question 1 right-to-repair on this year’s ballot, Kline said.
When asked if any of the incarcerated voters would want to talk for this article, Kline said many don’t want to speak publicly about being in the jail.
As of Oct. 20, there were 69 people in the jail who are eligible to request ballots, according to spokesperson Thomas Mitchell, and about 20 of them had done so as of mid-October, according to Kline.
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.