New laws restore voting rights to residents convicted of a felony

As political campaigns fight for every vote, the Plains states of Nebraska and Oklahoma have passed laws aimed at restoring the right to vote to people with felony convictions. Thousands of voters could be re-engaged in the political process, potentially impacting election results in some communities.

Other states have also taken steps to expand or restrict access to ballots for residents convicted of felonies. The laws may only affect a few thousand voters in each state, but in close races those numbers could make a difference.

Nebraska is recent LawA two-year waiting period will be passed in the spring and the right to vote will be restored to an estimated 7,000 Nebraskans who have completed their prison sentences since 2022, according to The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit criminal justice research and advocacy group.

On July 17, two days before the law took effect, Republican Attorney General Mike Hilgers issued a statement argue The recent law violated the Nebraska Constitution. Hilgers also argued that the underlying year was 2005 Lawthat automatically restored voting rights two years after serving a felony sentence was unconstitutional.

As a result, Republican Secretary of State Bob Evnen ordered county election offices to stop registering people convicted of a felony.

But last week, the Nebraska Supreme Court ordered Evnen to implement the law “immediately.”

Now newly elected Nebraskans have until Friday’s in-person voter registration deadline to register. Advocacy groups have called on Evnen to extend the deadline. The Secretary of State’s Office told Stateline that the state’s final registration deadline will not be extended.

Oklahoma is already restoring voting rights after residents have completed their prison sentences — including prison time, probation and parole. But earlier this year, lawmakers passed a law guaranteeing the right to vote immediately after receiving a pardon or commutation.

The recent law, set to take effect in January, clarifies voting eligibility for people previously convicted of a crime but whose sentences were commuted. Hundreds of Oklahomans were released from prison in 2019 in one of the largest mass commutations in the country after the state’s voters approved a ballot measure that converted many drug felony charges to misdemeanors.

Last year, both Minnesota and New Mexico lifted voting restrictions for people convicted of a felony and restored their right to vote at the end of their incarceration. Previously, these residents had to serve their entire sentence, including probation or parole, before they could regain their voting rights.

Now, less than two weeks before Election Day, tens of thousands of previously disenfranchised voters can cast their ballots – some for the first time.

Nationwide, however, about 4 million Americans will not be able to vote this year because they have been convicted of a felony The Conviction Project.

Most of these people – about 7 in 10 – live in their communities; They have either completed their sentence or are still under supervision during their probation or parole sentence. The others remain in prison.

New restrictions on voting rights

Several states have taken steps in the past year to further restrict the right to vote for people with felony convictions.

The North Carolina Supreme Court will make a decision in April 2023 confirmed a state law banning people on probation, parole or other forms of supervision from voting, overturning a lower court’s 2022 decision striking down the law.

Tennessee Supreme Court in July 2023 issued a decision requiring felons to have their voting rights restored by a judge or to provide proof that they have been pardoned.

And in Virginia, Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin in March 2023 rolled back the near-automatic restoration of voting rights — a process that has been used by both Democratic and Republican governors in the state for more than a decade. As a result, Virginians convicted of a felony must now apply to have their voting rights restored.

Voting rights experts say laws disenfranchising people with felonies have existed since before the founding of the United States. And most state disenfranchisement laws were passed after the Civil War.

“Felony disenfranchisement surged in the United States after the Civil War in the South to disenfranchise Black men who had fought for their right to vote,” said Blair Bowie, attorney and director of the Restore Your Vote Project at Campaign Legal Center, a legal advocacy organization. The center operates a hotline and has a Online tool This allows people to check whether they are eligible to vote in their state.

Today, some states restore the right to vote upon release from prison, while others require people to wait to receive a pardon, complete their probation or parole, pay all fines, fees and restitution, and observe a waiting period or a combination of both meet these requirements. Some states also prohibit people with felony convictions from voting.

No one is automatically registered to vote; People have to register.

In two states – Maine and Vermont – and the District of Columbia, felons never lose their right to vote, according to the agency National Conference of State Legislatures.

Voting access in correctional facilities

In many states, incarcerated U.S. citizens retain their right to vote, even in situations where they are being held pending trial or serving time in local jails.

For example, Virginia passed one earlier this year Law Allows registered voters who are incarcerated while awaiting trial or who have been convicted of a misdemeanor to vote by mail.

But for those incarcerated, barriers to voting can include difficulty registering or requesting a mail-in ballot, paying for postage and even accessing a pen to fill out the ballot, said Bowie of the Campaign Legal Center.

“Your right to access the ballot box is, in theory, constitutionally protected,” Bowie said. “The reality is that it is difficult to cast a vote and it is difficult to enforce this constitutional right.”