Even as 94,000 of New Jersey's residents remain behind bars, on parole or on probation - more than the entire population of Trenton - a debate is swirling: Should these men and women be entitled to vote when Election Day comes around every year?

Democratic legislators last week moved to repeal a law, on the books for 174 years, which prevents individuals convicted of a serious crime from voting - even after they've done their time and repaid their debt to society.

Backed by a coalition of 80 organizations throughout the state, the lawmakers say their bill remedies a system that disproportionately affects blacks in the Garden State.

The current ban "remains a moral stain on our state," says Ryan Haygood, president and CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, which recently released a report noting that more than half of those disenfranchised here - about 47,400 people - are African-Americans.

The Legislative Black Caucus has been advocating for the change for years, and now momentum seems to be building in its favor.

In 2016, the nonprofit Sentencing Project in Washington D.C. ranked the racial disparity in our prisons the highest in the country.

"There is no relationship between voting and committing crimes. To disenfranchise those who have made mistakes and are paying for them is wrong," says State Sen. Ron Rice (D-Essex), a prime sponsor of the bill.

If any population has a stake in the future of the criminal-justice system - and in the elected officials who make the decisions - it's those who are caught up in that system.

Threatening to take away the right to vote is hardly an effective means of preventing crime, Rice says.

On the contrary: Statistics indicate that when released prisoners are permitted to vote, as they are in Maine and Vermont, they are substantially less likely to wind up back in jail.

Much like programs such as those sponsored by the New Jersey Reentry Corporation help ex-cons find firmer footing once they're free, permitting these individuals to vote helps make them full and contributing members of society.

Whether or not to give the vote to incarcerated prisoners is a thornier issue.

Many people believe that a convicted murderer or a rapist forfeits the right to take part in the democratic process. Or that their lack of wisdom or judgment should make such felons ineligible to cast a ballot.

But the rights of citizenship still pertain, even to those behind bars. Furthermore, judgment and wisdom have never been prerequisites to voting.

It's unclear whether leading Democrats will get behind this component of the bill, and whether Gov. Phil Murphy would sign it if they did, But the issue is nuanced. The measure the lawmakers are debating deserves thorough and objective consideration.

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