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Phantom constituents in the Empire State:
How outdated Census Bureau methodology
burdens New York counties
By Peter Wagner, Meghan Rudy,
Ellie Happel and Will Goldberg
July 18, 2007

Prison Policy Initiative
PO Box 127
Northampton MA 01061

(413) 527-1333
http://www.prisonpolicy.org
pwagner@prisonpolicy.org

Executive Summary
The U.S. Census Bureau counts prisoners as residents of the facilities in which they are
incarcerated. The Bureau wants state and local government to use its findings, but it ignores
the fact that the constitutions of many states, including New York, declare that a prison is not
a residence. Crediting thousands of disenfranchised non-residents to the Census blocks with
prisons creates serious problems for counties when they attempt to reapportion their local
governments. The U.S. Supreme Court requires that districts be redrawn each decade so that
each district contains the same number of people and each voter has the same access to
government.
New York counties with prisons are faced with a tough choice: adjust the federal Census
data to ignore the prison populations, or rely on the Census and draw districts where some
citizens are granted extra political clout because they happen to live next to a prison.
Several New York counties painstakingly subtract their prison populations from the
Census data so that their legislative districts can be drawn fairly. Franklin County, for
example, has always excluded state prisoners from the base figures used to create its
legislative districts. Otherwise, two-thirds of one local district would consist of disenfranchised
prisoners from other parts of the state. Such a district would dilute the votes of every Franklin
County resident who lives outside that area and badly skew representation in the local
legislature. Other counties, like neighboring Saint Lawrence County, rely on the federal
Census and draw districts where each group of 8 residents in districts with prisons are given
as much political clout as 10 residents elsewhere in the county.
This report identifies which counties in New York State avoid diluting their own
citizens’ votes by excluding prisoners from their redistricting data, and quantifies the
democratic distortion in the counties that count prisoners as residents. It is the first report to
analyze local governments’ response to the inaccurate Census data, county by county, and to
measure the dilution of voting power within each county in the state.
The report finds that the majority of New York counties with prisons choose to adjust
the Census rather than significantly dilute the votes of some of their citizens at the expense of
others. Thirteen counties adjusted the Census to avoid distorting local democracy with large
prison populations. Sixteen counties used the prison populations in their redistricting, but in
only 5 of them are the prisons large enough that the Census Bureau’s methodology has
created a significant vote dilution problem.
The report offers short- and long-term recommendations to the problems created for
New York counties by the Census Bureau’s current method of counting prisoners. It calls
upon counties to appeal to the Census Bureau for relief and identifies counties where
immediate redistricting should take place to give citizens equal say in government.

Table of Contents

I.

Introduction .................................................................................... 1

II.

Findings .......................................................................................... 1
Essex County Local Law No 1 of 2003................................................... 3

III.

Recommendations........................................................................... 4
A.

Counties should make their views known to the U.S.
Census Bureau..................................................................... 4

B.

Counties that include the prison populations in their
districts and voting systems should exclude them.................. 4

C.

New York State could spare counties the
controversy and expense ...................................................... 5

IV.

Summary of findings in individual counties ..................................... 5

V.

Methodology ................................................................................. 11

VI.

Acknowledgements........................................................................ 12

VII.

About the authors.......................................................................... 12

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I.

Introduction
The U.S. Census was originally used to determine the relative population of each
state for Congressional apportionment, but another important use of the Census — state and
local redistricting — is impaired by a very old quirk in how the U.S. Census counts people in
prison. The Census Bureau counts prisoners as residents of the facilities in which they are
incarcerated. The Bureau wants state and local government to use its findings, but it ignores
the fact that the constitutions of many states, including New York,1 declare that a prison is
not a residence. The U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court’s “one person one vote” cases
requires state and county governments to redraw their districts each decade to give each
voter the same access to government, regardless of where she or he lives.
There is a national controversy about how the Census Bureau’s practice of counting
thousands of disenfranchised non-residents in the rural Census blocks affects democracy at
the state level, but a far larger result has gone almost unnoticed in the national press: the
impact upon county governments. Because county legislative districts tend to be relatively
small, a single large prison can have a huge negative impact on local democracy.
In this report, we analyze how the Census Bureau’s method of counting prison
populations affects voting strength in individual districts in the 31 New York counties with
state prisons. Some counties have legislatures and draw equally-sized districts, while other
counties have Boards of Supervisors and adjust the weight of the votes cast by individual
Supervisors in proportion to the population they represent. For reasons of simplicity we will
use the terms “legislature” and “redistricting” to refer to the various types of government and
their redistricting and reapportionment processes.
II.

Findings
We identified 13 counties that remove the prison population from their population
base before redistricting and 16 counties where the legislature includes incarcerated people in
the data used for redistricting. (See Table 1) In 5 of those counties, the impact of prisoners on
equal representation is relatively small.2 In 5 other counties – Chautauqua, Livingston,
Oneida, Madison, and St. Lawrence – including prisoners creates vote dilution in excess of
20%. Our county-by-county analysis can be found in Section IV, Summary of Findings in
Individual Counties.
In two counties, Schuyler and Seneca, we were unable to classify the county as having
excluded or included the prison populations. The prison in Schuyler County is relatively
“[N]o person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence, by reason of his presence or absence… while
confined in any public prison.” N.Y. Const. art. II, § 4.
2 The maximum distortion, as measured by the size of the largest prison divided by the district population, in
Erie County is 6%; in Ulster County 5.5%; in Westchester County 4.2%; in Saratoga County 4.1%; and in
Monroe County 0.4%.
1

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Phantom constituents in the Empire State

small and the existing population deviation between districts is relatively large. In Seneca
County, the county has not updated its weighted voting system since the 1990 Census, which
predates the two prisons in the county.
Counties that include prisoners in
population
Chautauqua County
Chenango County
Columbia County
Erie County
Fulton County
Jefferson County
Livingston County
Madison County
Monroe County
Oneida County
New York City
Saratoga County
St. Lawrence County
Ulster County
Wayne County
Westchester County

Counties that exclude prisoners from
population
Cayuga County
Chemung County
Clinton County
Dutchess County
Essex County
Franklin County
Greene County
Orange County
Orleans County
Schoharie County
Sullivan County
Washington County
Wyoming County

Table 1. See Section IV, Summary of Findings for the details about each county.

While counties must update their district lines each decade, New York State law gives
counties the discretion to choose the population base used for redistricting.3 The decision to
exclude the prison populations in the redistricting scheme therefore belongs to the County.
While the majority of counties with large prisons choose to exclude the prison populations
prior to redistricting, to our knowledge Essex County was the only county to publish a
detailed justification for doing so. The Board of Supervisors wrote in Local Law No. 1 that
prisoners “live in a separate environment, do not participate in the life of Essex County, and
do not affect the social and economic character of the towns” where they are incarcerated,
and therefore cannot be residents.4 The law explains that counting prisoners as residents
“unfairly dilutes the votes or voting weight” of Essex County’s actual residents, and therefore
the county will not include them in the population base.5 The full text of the Essex County
statute is printed on the next page.

3

New York Municipal Home Rule Law §10(1)(ii)(a)(13)(c): “As used in this subparagraph the term ‘population’ shall
mean residents, citizens, or registered voters. A population base for such a plan of apportionment shall utilize the latest
statistical information obtainable from an official enumeration done at the same time for all the residents, citizens, or
registered voters of the local government. Such a plan may allocate, by extrapolation or any other rational method, such
latest statistical information to representation areas or units of local government, provided that any plan containing such an
allocation shall have annexed thereto as an appendix, a detailed explanation of the allocation.”
4
5

Essex County Local Law No. 1 of 2003.
Ibid.

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Essex County Local Law No. 1 of 2003
The 2000 Census determined that Essex County has a total population of 38,851.
Included in that population, however, are 2,194 persons confined in the state and federal
correctional facilities located in the towns of Moriah and North Elba, a figure which
represents 5.6472% of the total population of Essex County. The largest portion of state
and federal inmates — 1,898 — are located in the town of North Elba, with 1,182 being
incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution in Ray Brook and 716 being
incarcerated in the New York State Correctional Facility known as Camp Adirondack.
These 1,898 incarcerated individuals represent 21.914% of the town of North Elba’s
population of 8,661 and 4.885% of the County population. Also, the population in the
town of Moriah of 4,879 includes 296 persons who are incarcerated in the New York State
Correctional Facility known as Moriah Shock, which represents 6.066% of the town’s
population and 0.761% of the County population.
Persons incarcerated in the state and federal correctional institutions have been
convicted of criminal acts constituting felonies and their presence in Essex County is
considered involuntary. These incarcerated persons: are not residents of the County since
they are here involuntarily and can be relocated by the Commissioner of Corrections at
the latter’s discretion; are not entitled to vote and thus are not voters in Essex County; and
receive no services from the County — except when they commit new criminal acts and
are brought before County Court, or when they are entitled to assignment of counsel as
indigents in connection with parole hearings under New York Executive Law Article 12-B.
Persons incarcerated in state and federal correctional institutions live in a separate
environment, do not participate in the life of Essex County, and do not affect the social
and economic character of the towns in which are located the correctional facilities where
they are incarcerated are located.
The inclusion of these federal and state correctional facility inmates unfairly dilutes the
votes or voting weight of persons residing in other towns within Essex County. This is
particularly so if the 1,898 inmates in the town of North Elba are included in its
population total of 8,661 since those inmates would then represent 21.914% of the town of
North Elba’s population.
The Board of Supervisors finds that the population base to be utilized in and by the plan
apportioning the Essex County Board of Supervisors should exclude state and federal
inmates.

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III.

Recommendations
The Census Bureau’s decision to credit thousands of disenfranchised non-residents to
the Census blocks with prisons creates serious problems for counties when they attempt to
reapportion their local governments. New York counties with prisons are faced with a tough
choice: adjust the federal census to ignore the prison populations, or rely on the Census and
draw districts where some citizens are granted extra political clout because they happen to
live next to a prison.
This problem need not exist in the future. Counties can lobby the Census Bureau for
change or fix the data themselves; New York State legislators can also intervene.
III. A. Counties should make their views known to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In their recent report, the National Research Council of the National Academies
recommended that the Census Bureau assess the states’ interest in separately identifying the
prison population in the PL94-171 Redistricting Data.6 Currently, correctional facility data is
only available in Summary File 1, which is published three to five months after the PL94-171
redistricting data and in a different format. If the prison populations were identified in the
PL94-171 redistricting data set, legislators could easily subtract the prisoners prior to
redistricting and draw undistorted districts without needless difficulty or delay.
The National Research County recommended that the Census Bureau assess states
interest in identifying the prison populations in the redistricting data, but the impact of the
prison miscount on counties is far larger than on states, so counties should make their needs
known to the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau considers redistricting to be the second
most important use of the Census, so the opinion of county officials in New York State would
carry significant weight with the Bureau’s Redistricting Data Program.
III. B. Counties that include the prison populations in their districts and voting
systems should exclude them.
Counties that currently include the prison populations in their districts or weighted
voting systems should redraw their districts or update their weighted voting systems.7 In Erie,
Monroe, Westchester, Saratoga, and Ulster, the impact of including prisoners is relatively
National Research Council, Once, Only Once, and in the Right Place: Residence Rules in the Decennial Census,
September 2006, p. 250.
7 The Census publishes counts of correctional facilities at the block level in Summary File 1, Table P37.
Unfortunately, this table includes local jails, halfway houses and other types of facilities, but we offer online tools
to determine which blocks are prisons in Section 2 of the Democracy Toolkit available at
http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/toolkit/section2.html. Advanced users of Census data may know that the
Bureau classifies correctional facilities by type to the tract level in table PCT16, but in our experience we have
frequently found these classifications inaccurate and recommend against relying solely upon PCT16
classifications. We instead recommend using our methodology which matches contemporary criminal justice
data to the Census Bureau’s results in order to classify facilities by type.
6

Phantom constituents in the Empire State

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small, but the districts are still based on inaccurate representations of the counties’
populations.
Including prisoners in the counties of Chautauqua, Livingston, Oneida, Madison, and
St. Lawrence has significantly distorted local democracy. These counties should immediately
redraw their legislative districts or re-weight their Supervisors’ votes to ensure that all
residents will have equal access to local government.
Restoring equal voting power in the counties of Chenango, Columbia, Fulton,
Livingston, Madison, and Wayne, which have weighted voting, will be relatively simple,
because only the votes for the Supervisors with prisons in their towns would need to be
adjusted. (More detail on each county is given in Section IV, Summary of Findings.)
III. C. New York State could spare counties the controversy and expense.
Counties could be spared expense and needless controversy if the New York
Legislature passes the Prisoner Census Adjustment Act before the next Census in April 2010.
The bill, written by New York State Senator Eric Schneiderman, directs the State Board of
Elections to create a special version of the Census Bureau’s PL94-171 Redistricting Data that
counts prisoners where they are from, not where they are housed. The bill would mandate
that the corrected dataset be used for congressional, state, and county redistricting.8
IV.

Summary of findings in individual counties
Cayuga County excluded prisoners prior to drawing its 15 legislative districts;
otherwise the district housing Auburn Correctional Facility would have been 32% prisoners.
Chautauqua County included prisoners when drawing districts for its 25-member
legislature. District 23 (Portland) is 22% prisoners counted at the Lakeview Correctional
Facility.
Chemung County excluded prisoners prior to drawing its 15 legislative districts;
otherwise the district housing the Elmira Correctional Facility would have been 30%
prisoners.
Chenango County included the prisoners counted at the Camp Pharsalia
Correctional Facility when distributing votes to the Board of Supervisors. Each Supervisor
represents a town and has a number of votes equal to about 1/21st the number of people
counted in the Census. As a result of the prison population, the Plymouth Supervisor receives
97 votes instead of 85.

8New

York Senate Bill 2754, available at http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/nys2754.html. The bill has also
been introduced in the Assembly as Bill A04537.

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Clinton County excluded prisoners prior to drawing its 10 legislative districts;
otherwise the district which includes Clinton Correctional Facility would have been more
than 36% prisoners.
Columbia County included the prisoners counted at the Hudson Correctional
Facility when distributing votes to the Board of Supervisors. Each Supervisor represents a
town and has a number of votes equal to about 1/18th the number of people counted in the
Census. As a result of the prison population, the Hudson Supervisor receives 432 votes
instead of 386.
Dutchess County excluded the prison populations when it drew the districts for its
25-member legislature.
Erie County did not remove its prison population prior to drawing districts for its
15-member legislature. District 13 is 6% prisoners. That district, which contains Collins,
Concord, Colden, Aurora, Orchard Park and the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation, includes
the Collins and Gowanda Correctional Facilities in Collins.
Essex County excluded state and federal prisoners prior to distributing votes to the
Board of Supervisors. Each Supervisor represents a town and has a number of votes equal to
about 1/13th the number of residents – excluding prisoners – counted in the Census.
Otherwise, the North Elba Supervisor would be able to exercise an extra 146 votes beyond
her current 481.9
Franklin County removed the prison population prior to drawing its 7 legislative
districts; otherwise, the county would have had to create a district near Malone that was more
prisoners than local residents.10 As three residents of the county explained in a 2004 letter to
the Census Bureau: “Franklin County has always excluded state prisoners from the base
figures used to draw our legislative districts. To do otherwise would contradict how we view
our community and would lead to an absurd result….”11
Fulton County included the prison population when distributing votes to the Board
of Supervisors. Each Supervisor represents a town or city ward, and has a number of votes
equal to 10% of the represented area’s total population in the Census. The prison population
counted at the Hale Creek Correctional Facility represents 6 of the 72 votes (8.5%) exercised
by the Johnstown Supervisor.
Essex County Local Law No. 1 of 2003. See full text on page 3.
David Sommerstein, “Prisoners: North County Residents?”, North Country Public Radio, March 4, 2004,
transcript available at http://www.prisonpolicy.org/news/ncpr030504.html
11 Letter from Daniel Jenkins, Mark Flack Wells, and Norman Gervais to the Director of the Census Bureau on
July 9, 2004 in regards to the Establishment of the 2010 Census Redistricting Data Program, available at
http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/news/2004/09/06/ruralcitizens/.
9

10

Phantom constituents in the Empire State

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Greene County removed the prison population prior to drawing the districts for its
14-member, 7-district legislature. Had the county included the 3,000 prisoners in the
Coxsackie and Greene Correctional Facilities, the northeast corner of the county would have
received 4 legislators rather than the 2 its resident population requires.12 Notably, the
Legislature originally proposed including the prison population in the districts, but citizens
elsewhere in the county strongly objected.13
Jefferson County included prisoners when drawing districts for its 15-member
legislature. The Cape Vincent Correctional Facility is 15% of the population in District 1.
The prisoners counted at the Watertown Correctional Facility are 11% of District 11.
Livingston County included the prison population when distributing votes to the
Board of Supervisors. Each Supervisor represents a town and has a number of votes equal to
about 1/37th of the town’s total population in the Census. Sixty-two percent of Groveland’s
Census population is incarcerated in the Livingston and Groveland Correctional Facilities.
This enhancement of Groveland’s population results in the Groveland Supervisor exercising
107 votes instead of 40. The Supervisor from Groveland is currently Chair of the Livingston
County Board of Supervisors.
Madison County included the prison population when distributing votes to the
Board of Supervisors. Each Supervisor represents a city ward or town and has a number of
votes equal to about 1/45th of the represented area’s total population in the Census. The
prison population counted at Camp Georgetown represents 5 of the 21 votes exercised by the
Georgetown Supervisor.
Monroe County is not seriously affected by where state prisoners are counted
because the state prison in the county is very small (90 people) compared to an average
district size of about 25,357 people.
Unlike upstate counties, New York City could not solve the problem created by
miscounting prisoners solely by removing the prisoner populations from its districts. The
Census does not give the City Council data on the many New York City residents
incarcerated upstate, and so the Council is unable to put them back in the districts where
they belong. The Census also counts the population of Rikers Island as part of District 22 in
Astoria, Queens, where the prisoners are 8.1% of the population. Because Rikers Island is a
local jail, not a state prison, its population belongs all over New York City, but the Council
has no way of knowing which prisoners live where.
Greg Wright, “Census inmate count gives some areas more political clout,” Gannett News Service, March 17,
2006.
13 “Legislature remapping criticized,” Daily Freeman, Jan 29, 2003 and letter at
http://www.prisonpolicy.org/articles/freeman020303.html.
12

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Oneida County included the prison population in the Census data used to draw
districts for its 29-member legislature. The population of each district varies widely from the
ideal district size of 8,119 people per legislative district. District 8 is about 17% too large, with
a population of 9,469. District 28 is about 11% too small, with a population of 7,236. Both of
these districts contain large prisons. The 3,604 prisoners counted at the Marcy and Mid-State
Correctional Facilities in District 8 reduce the real population of the district to 5,865. Even
more significantly, the smallest district, District 28, includes 2,451 prisoners counted at the
Oneida and Mohawk Correctional Facilities. The resident population of District 28 is 4,785,
41% smaller than the average district in the county.
Orange County removed the state and federal prison populations prior to drawing
its 21 legislative districts; otherwise, the state and federal prisons near Otisville would result in
drawing a district that was more than 11% prisoners.
Although Orleans County claims to have included the prison population in its
districts, the county in effect excluded the population of the Orleans and Albion Correctional
Facilities from its districts. The County has a 7-member legislature. Three legislators must be
from particular regions, but are elected at-large by the entire county and are therefore
unaffected by where prisoners are counted. The remaining 4 legislators are elected from
districts based on population. The County contains two state prisons, Albion and Orleans
Correctional Facilities, both located in Albion. However, the Census Bureau incorrectly
counted the Albion Correctional Facility in the town of Murray. To draw its districts, the
county used corrected Census Bureau data so that both facilities were credited to Albion,
where they are actually located. District 3 (Albion and Gaines) is 22% prisoners, but this does
not enhance the weight of a vote in District 3 because the total population of District 3 is
much larger than the other districts. In fact, the non-incarcerated population of District 3 is
almost exactly what it should be if the correctional facilities were not included in the first
place.
The St. Lawrence County legislature includes 3,120 state prisoners within only two
of their 15 legislative districts. The population of District 2 is more than one-quarter
prisoners. Although the legislative districts average 7,462 county residents, District 2 in
Ogdensburg has only 5,639.
St. Lawrence County’s inclusion of the prisoners was the subject of local controversy
in part because the county had previously excluded the prisoners. The legislature changed
course in order to shift the balance of power in the county. In response, about two thousand
citizens signed a petition opposing their legislature’s plan to include prisoners in population
counts. At the county legislature’s request, the county attorney scrutinized the petitions and
succeeded in having enough signatures thrown out on technicalities to declare the petition

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invalid. The legislature went ahead with its districting plan, but many of the incumbents who
were responsible for this were defeated in the following county election.
Saratoga County included the prison population when distributing votes to the
Board of Supervisors. Each Supervisor receives the same number of votes as the Census
Bureau’s Count Question Resolution Program reported in the area represented by the
Supervisor. The Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility is in the towns of Corinth, Moreau and
Wilton. This prison population represents 247 of the 6,259 votes exercised by the Corinth
Supervisor, 566 of the 13,549 votes exercised by the Moreau Supervisor and 27 of the 12,541
votes exercised by the Wilton Supervisor.
Seneca County has not updated its weighted voting system for the Board of
Supervisors since the 1990 Census, when the prisons did not yet exist. The Willard Drug
Treatment Center replaced the Willard State Hospital in 1995. The Five Points Correctional
Facility in Romulus opened shortly after the Census was taken and, by July 2000, held more
than 1,500 people. The County unsuccessfully lobbied the Census Bureau to include the Five
Points Facility in the count, and debated hiring the Bureau to conduct a special Census. In
the end, the county felt that the 2000 Census was not so different than the 1990 Census as to
require updating the vote totals and retained its weighted voting system from 1990. While the
County wanted the Census Bureau to include the Five Points Correctional Facility in its total
population, the weighted voting system adopted after the 1990 Census excludes the
temporary populations at the Willard State Hospital and the Seneca Army Depot in Varick.
After the 1990 Census, Seneca County excluded mental hospital and military
populations prior to distributing votes to the Board of Supervisors. Each Supervisor
represents a town and has a number of votes equal to about 1/44th the number of
constituents – excluding hospital patients and military – counted in the Census. Otherwise,
the Varick Supervisor would be able to exercise an additional 9 votes beyond her current 40.
The Schoharie County Board of Supervisors excluded the prison population at the
Summit Correctional Facility when determining the number of votes each Supervisor would
receive.14
Schuyler County contains the Summit Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility in
the town of Orange, in District 1. However, the way in which the districts were drawn makes
it difficult to draw conclusions about how prisoners were counted. The County is divided into
three multi-member districts, and there is a significant difference in the number of people per
legislator, regardless of whether prisoners are excluded or included. This deviation,

14

Schoharie County Local Law #2-2002, March 15, 2002.

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combined with the small size of the Summit Shock Correctional Facility, makes drawing
conclusions difficult.
Note that the Census incorrectly classified the Summit Shock Incarceration
Correctional Facility as a juvenile institution and therefore published its location in a different
data tables (P37005) than the rest of the adult correctional center population in table P37003.
We calculated the district populations as:

District
1
2
3

Towns
Reading, Tyrone, Orange
Montour, Dix
Hector, Cayuta, Catherine

Number
of
legislators
2
3
3

Total Population
5,252
6,643
7,329

Summit Shock
Incarceration
Population
301
0
0

Resident
Population
4,951
6,643
7,329

Sullivan County excluded prisoners prior to drawing its 9 legislative districts;
otherwise the district containing the Sullivan and Woodbourne Correctional Facilities would
be 22% prisoners.
Ulster County included the prison population when drawing districts for its 12district, 33-member legislature. Districts 1, 4 and 9 are 4.7 to 5.5% prisoners. Wallkill and
Shawangunk Correctional Facilities are in District 9, and Eastern Correctional Facility is in
District 1. The Ulster Correctional Facility is physically located near the Eastern Correctional
Facility in Wawarsing, but the Census Bureau made a mistake and counted the facility in
Saugerties. The county used the original Census Bureau data when drawing its districts, and
distorted the weight of a vote in Saugerties’ District 4 rather than adding to the distortion in
Wawarsing’s District 1.
Washington County excluded prisoners prior to distributing votes to the Board of
Supervisors. Each Supervisor represents a town and has a number of votes equal to about
1/14th the number of residents –excluding prisoners – counted in the Census. Otherwise, the
Fort Ann Supervisor would be able to exercise an additional 193 votes beyond her current
269.
Wayne County included the prisoners counted at Butler Correctional Facility in
Butler and Walcott when distributing votes to the Board of Supervisors. Each Supervisor
represents a town and has a number of votes equal to about 1/22nd the number of people
counted in the Census. As a result of the prison populations, the Butler Supervisor receives
105 votes instead of 92. The Walcott supervisor receives 216 votes instead of 205.
Westchester County included the prison populations in Sing-Sing, Bedford Hills
and Taconic Correctional Facilities when drawing its 17 legislative districts. The 2,279 state

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prisoners in Sing-Sing – 75% of whom are from New York City – are 4.2% of District 9’s
population.
Wyoming County excluded prisoners prior to distributing votes to the Board of
Supervisors. Each Supervisor represents a town and has a number of votes equal to about
1/25th the number of residents – excluding prisoners – counted in the Census. Otherwise, the
Attica Supervisor would be able to exercise an additional 87 votes beyond her current 164.
Similarly, including the prisoners would have allowed the Perry Supervisor to exercise an
additional 71 votes.
V.

Methodology
Previous research conducted by St. Lawrence County, the Greenville Press (Greene and
So. Albany Counties), and Dan Jenkins has relied solely on interviews with county officials.
This report used legal and demographic research to confirm how the existing districts were
actually drawn, and used interviews to interpret and confirm our results.
In April, the Prison Policy Initiative published the Democracy Toolkit (available at
http://www.prisonersof thecensus.org/toolkit/) to help rural counties determine whether
prison populations were excluded from districts and to calculate the resulting vote dilution in
counties that included them. We used this methodology and online tools in addition to the
Arcview GIS mapping system.
Most counties did not publish the population totals for their districts, so we calculated
the population totals by overlaying Census data over the county district maps in Arcview. In
the counties that publish electronic files with the shapes of their districts, this calculation was
straightforward. In other counties, we recreated their paper maps in Arcview and then
calculated the population totals using both official Census data and a special version of the
Census data with the prison populations removed. In this way, we could determine which
dataset was used to draw the districts. Similarly, in counties with weighted voting, we
calculated the number of total residents per vote and the number of non-incarcerated
residents per vote for each town. In most cases, the numbers matched for one calculation and
not the other. In the cases where neither set of numbers matched, we interviewed county
officials to learn the source of the numbers used for their calculations.
VI.

Acknowledgements
This report was prepared with the support of The After Prison Initiative of the Open
Society Institute. Arla Berman, Lindsey Frischer, Dan Jenkins and Allison Tompkins
provided some initial research for this report. Andy Beveridge and Bill Cooper provided
invaluable assistance locating and converting geographic data. Finally, many county clerks
generously gave their time to help us understand how their local government was structured.

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Phantom constituents in the Empire State

VII.

About the authors
Peter Wagner is an attorney and executive director of the Prison Policy Initiative. In
2002, he authored the first district-by-district analysis of the impact of Census counts of
prisoners on state legislative redistricting, Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in New
York (2002). He has presented his research at national and international conferences and
meetings, including a Census Bureau Symposium, a meeting of the National Academies, and
keynote addresses at Harvard and Brown Universities. His publications include, with Rose
Heyer, Too Big to Ignore: How Counting People in Prisons Distorted Census 2000 (2004) and with Eric
Lotke, Prisoners of the Census: Electoral and Financial Consequences of Counting Prisoners Where They Go,
Not Where They Come From (2005).
Meghan Rudy is a law student at Hofstra University School of Law.
Ellie Happel graduated from New York University with a degree in Metropolitan
Studies in May of 2005. Her senior thesis, Rikers Island and Representative Democracy: Collateral
Consequences of Incarceration in New York City, won the Borgman Prize for the best senior thesis in
the social sciences.
William Goldberg is a student at Smith College.