HOLYOKE — During its March 21 meeting, the Holyoke City Council voted unanimously to pledge to support and protect the democratic rights of ex-felons and/or the formerly incarcerated to vote, run for office and hold a seat for which they were duly elected.

The order was filed by At-Large City Councilor Israel Rivera.

Rivera brought the order up at the City Council’s Public Service Committee meeting on March 13 where it was discussed for the first time.

Rivera filed the request in response to Florida officials’ attempts to restrict felons’ voting rights. Rivera, who was once incarcerated over a decade ago, has spoken often about his experiences openly and advocated for the formerly incarcerated, which has now led him to his work in public service.

Originally filed as a resolution before being changed into a recommendation, Rivera felt events taking place in Florida should not be tolerated as he shared details of felons being arrested and fined for voter fraud.

Florida granted felons the right to vote, except for convicted murderers and sexual offenders, with their approved Amendment 4. This change gave voting rights back to felons until a state law introduced in March 2019 changed the amendment, requiring former felons to pay all fees owed or modify their sentence to register to vote. This change led to the arrest of felons who voted due to owed fees, which made Rivera want to address this in the Holyoke community.

News outlets in Florida and nationally have reported that 20 formerly convicted individuals were arrested for voting in 2020. Rivera stated his belief that these arrests were utilized as a scare tactic meant to discourage certain people from voting.

“At the end of the day, what ends up happening is these arrests that are posted in the news and on Fox and on CNN and all these other things — granted, this is not happening in Holyoke, but people don’t know that and someone with a criminal record is going to see that, hear that, and when it comes down to it, they’re just not going to vote,” Rivera said.

A federal judge did eventually rule the law was unconstitutional and discriminated against low-income individuals, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Florida’s favor.

Rivera even noted during the Public Safety Committee meeting discussion that it’s “a scary feeling” seeing this happen and that he felt it was only right for Holyoke to show the community they stand with them and raise awareness to the threat to voting rights.

“They’re not going to get involved with the democratic process, so the idea or the intention for me creating the resolution is to show as a council we don’t support that and that we stand with anyone that has come back into society that is trying to change their life and get a second chance,” Rivera said.

At-Large Councilor Kevin Jourdain was in support of Rivera’s efforts but felt a resolution was not the best method for raising awareness on this and showing support on behalf of the council, something he noted during the committee meeting.

Jourdain suggested creating a flyer for the City Clerk’s office informing people of their voting rights and Ward 3 Councilor David Bartley added there should be an online equivalent for those interested.

While the council voted to support and back the pledge filed by Rivera, it was changed from resolution into a recommendation. Rivera noted during the City Council meeting that he has already filed something different with the Ordinance Committee that could be better used as a resolution in relation to this topic.

At-Large Councilor Peter Tallman was also in favor of Rivera’s recommendation and added there has been very good discussion around this item.

“This shouldn’t be tolerated here in this community,” Tallman added.

The council voted unanimously to approve the recommendation of pledging support to protect the voting rights of ex-felons and the formerly incarcerated.