Now that Florida voters have ended the state’s permanent disenfranchisement of rehabilitated felons, only Kentucky and Iowa ban those who have completed their sentence and parole from participating in democracy. On Tuesday, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced her support for a constitutional amendment that would restore those voting rights in her annual Condition of the State address, marking a major step for democracy and social justice.
The state’s prohibition on ex-felon voting rights dates back to 2011, when former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad rescinded an executive order that automatically restored those rights. Since then, an estimated 52,000 Iowans have had their voting rights taken away, including one in ten African Americans.
“I don’t believe that voting rights should be forever stripped, and I don’t believe restoration should be in the hands of a single person,” Reynolds said in her remarks on Tuesday.
While a conservative Republican, Reynolds comes to the issue from a place of empathy, as she struggled with alcoholism and was arrested for drunk driving in 1999 and 2000. Her fellow Republicans were at least cautiously receptive to the proposal on Tuesday, though they seemed to indicate that they would look for some conditions to be added to the re-enfranchisement.
This would not be an overnight change; it takes a bill passing two consecutive sessions of the legislature and then approval by voters to be enacted.
Voter approval shouldn’t be a problem, especially if Republican lawmakers back the proposal. Even as Florida elected Republicans to the Senate and Governor’s Mansion, voters there backed Amendment 4, which restored voting rights, by an overwhelming 65%.
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