State Legislature may restore voting rights to parolees
Ángel Solís of the Bronx was 18 when he first voted, excited to participate in the 2004 election. At the time a registered Republican, having been raised in a conservative household – “everybody hated me in the Bronx” he recalled – Solís said he voted for then-President George W. Bush and that it was “fun” to see his candidate emerge victorious. “I got to see democracy in action from a very young age,” Solís said. “It was my first taste of being a citizen.”Not long after, Solís went to prison on burglary charges, where he would spend the majority of the next 15 years of his life.