Director, Producer / Voter

Voting, as Ron Pierce, the protagonist of VOTER, has told me, is “the tip of the spear.” With voting comes the power to change everything else. It is a multiplier right. Incarcerated citizens in Maine and Vermont, as well as in most democratic nations, can weigh in on ballot initiatives, primary elections and decide who represents them in their local school districts, Sheriff’s departments, state legislatures, in congress and in the White House.

In the last 20 years 28 states have opened up voting to different sections of their criminally convicted populations. Some have let those on parole and probation vote, while others have lifted bans on those with past convictions. But no state has taken the extraordinary step of re enfranchising those currently incarcerated. If a bill for re-enfranchisement in New Jersey passes, it could be the first domino in a chain reaction that could drastically change the political and civic landscape in the U.S.