I never thought about voting.

I'm definitely excited about this is history.

What's really striking is when you consider how many people were disenfranchised in the country.

It was about six million folks, meaning the vast majority of people who had still been disenfranchised for the rest of their lives had already done their time.

And so they were members in our communities, paying taxes on didn't have a right to vote.

Alright, so my name is Joe I.

Sims.

I am from Harlem, New York.

My story is I was running the streets as a young kid.

Later on in my life, I got caught up around age 29.

I got incarcerated.

I end up imprisoned by doing a lot of robberies.

Me and a couple of my friends we got caught on.

I was incarcerated because I was incarcerated for 15 years.

I regret not doing the right thing that way.

I could be in my family's lives because, you know, my family really needed me at that at that time.

When I got incarcerated on that took me away from my family.

Prior to me being incarcerated, I never thought about voting.

I was too consumed about myself and what was going on in my community, so I didn't.

You can see the need to vote.

At that time, I was not about community building, and I was definitely not into politics.

I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything.

I just knew that eventually I was gonna gain that that privilege back.

Once you've served all your time and paid all your fees and all your finds that were associated with your original sentence that was assigned by the judge once your case was completed and fully adjudicated, then when that has happened, your voting rights are fully restored.

Yeah, there is a huge part of our population that is unable to vote, and that is very intentional.

And so I think that everyone has a responsibility to participate in the democratic process.

I don't see it as a right that I want to get back.

I see it as my responsibility.

Once I came home or like a few months after I came home or something like that, Cuomo actually restored my rights to vote.

He made it possible where former incarcerated individuals registered to vote and this coming election.

Yeah.

I am excited to vote.

You know, you have Trump on one side biting on the other.

I'm definitely excited to vote.

This is history.

Yeah, I feel a great sense of responsibility because I feel like my vote matters.

I feel like my vote could sway it either way if I vote or if I don't vote.

So I felt like a great sense of responsibility.

We're political beings.

You're casting your ballot.

You're letting your voice be heard.

Our answers is wish they had the right to vote and they were denied that this right here is something that could it could change your life and change the life of others.

You can also learn from my experience that no matter how bad you've done, you can always correct it.

So voting is very important.