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To ex-felon, first vote means a fresh start
Voting rights had been suspended during his life of crime and prison time
Journal Photo by David Rolfe
Limon Sykes (left), a first-time voter, and Darryl Hunt head to the polls.
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Published: October 31, 2008
Limon Sykes was excited as he stood in line yesterday at the Malloy Jordan Heritage Center on East Seventh Street.
Sykes, 67, was getting ready to vote for the first time in his life.
With a predicted high turnout for this election, there probably could be thousands of people his age casting ballots for the first time. But for Sykes, the chance to vote was also one more sign of a new direction in his life.
"This is the first time in my life that I've had my (voting rights) restored because I have been in and out of prison so many years," Sykes said. "I'm really excited about it because it has never happened to me before. I stayed in trouble so much."
The Darryl Hunt Project for Freedom and Justice teamed up with the Winston-Salem Black Political Action Committee to take about 70 former offenders to vote, although organizers were hoping to raise the number to at least 100 before the drive was finished.
The groups said that there are many myths about losing the right to vote, chief among them the idea that felons lose their right to vote for good. That's true in some states but not in North Carolina. Here, felons regain the right to vote after they have completed their sentences and any associated probation, parole and restitution, said Rob Coffman, the director of elections in Forsyth County.
"Once you are released (from prison) your civil rights are restored, and there is no process to go through," Coffman said.
Some -- but not all -- of the former offenders voting yesterday had felony convictions.
Hunt, who regained his freedom in 2004 after spending 18 years in jail for a murder he didn't commit, cast his own vote along with the former offenders he helps though his foundation.
"Most people do not know that when they complete their sentence they can vote," Hunt said. "We have been registering people to vote ever since the beginning of the year in our office. We help (ex-offenders) find their first job and housing, but voting is important, too."
Hunt was 19 and had never voted when he went to prison.
"I remember my grandfather always going to vote," Hunt said. "He had two pictures on his wall -- Martin Luther King and John Kennedy. I never really understood the significance of voting." Hunt cast his first ballot in 2005.
Sykes, who grew up in Portsmouth, Va., said he began getting in trouble in his youth. He recalls a day when police actually came to school to take him away on charges of burglary and car theft.
"I've been in every institution in the state of Virginia except a mental institution," he said. "I've been in all kinds of trouble. My mother was in a wheelchair, and my father wasn't around."
Along the way, Sykes got mixed up in drugs, using heroin and cocaine. He committed more crimes to support his habit. Although he came to North Carolina in 1980 and married in 1984, he said, he couldn't stay out of trouble.
Sykes said he has been drug- free since 2003. He got out of jail in June 2006, and he credited Hunt and Hunt's foundation for helping him get a fresh start. He works as a shift supervisor and cook at a fast-food restaurant.
After waiting about 30 minutes, Sykes found himself in front of a computer voting terminal and had to ask for help.
"I was so excited I was like a little kid with a new toy," he said. "The lady there had to help me. I don't have a whole lot of education, but I can read. They told me how to push the first button for president. I had to keep asking."
Sykes said he now plans to tell his grandchildren about the importance of voting.
"I'm going to explain everything to them," he said. "I explain things they have never seen before. I tried to explain to them how important it is for them to vote because they were born in America."
■ Wesley Young can be reached at 727-7369 or at wyoung@wsjournal.com.
**This story was changed to reflect the correct name of the Malloy Jordan Heritage Center, a branch of the Forsyth County library system.
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