During a New York gubernatorial debate Tuesday with Republican nominee Marc Molinaro, Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo defended his mass pardon policy that restored the voting rights of criminals like convicted sex offenders, some whose polling place could be inside a school.

“The point is, these are people who are on parole, who have served their time, they’ve been released,” argued the incumbent. “We are now trying to reintegrate them into society and we spent a lot of money trying to reintegrate people into society so they don’t commit another crime and there’s not more recidivism. Giving them the right to vote after they have done their time and paid their price to society is a way of reintegrating them.”

Cuomo continued, “Sex offenders can only vote in a supervised situation, and I would be against allowing a sex offender to go anywhere near a situation where there are children.”

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