Iowa’s Democratic Governor, Tom Vilsack, announced that he would sign an executive order to restore voting rights to ex-felons who have served their sentence and completed parole.
Under the order, convicted felons who complete their sentence and parole would have voting rights automatically restored.
Vilsack emphasized that the order will not restore the right to carry a gun or ease any financial obligations to victims.
(from the Iowa City Press-Citizen)
Last year, about 600 felons had their rights restored by appealing to the state parole board, but that is a lengthy, time-consuming process. Gov. Vilsack predicted that the new order may effect as many as 500 – 600 people per month.
It’s noteworthy that this order had bi-partisan support, and its only prominent critic was the very conservative Speaker of the House.
Only four other states have lifetime prohibitions of voting for ex-felons: Florida, Alabama, Kentucky and Virginia. This Boston Globe article describes recent efforts to restore voting rights for felons nationwide.
Ex-felons face many other restrictions, in addtion to loss of voting rights. For example, convicted drug users may not receive food stamps or college tuition assistance. A report from Stateline.org has more on the Bush administration’s policies.
This issue really hit home for me when a friend was arrested last year. (It’s a long story, but he was innocent and all the charges were dropped.) Does this issue effect anyone that you know? When have felons paid their debt to society?
Good for Vilsack. I didn’t realize that Iowa was among the states that didn’t automatically reinstate the franchise upon sentence completion.
A lot of Iowans didn’t realize that we had such a regressive policy either. That’s why this measure had bi-partisan support.
if it has bipartisan support, why an executive order rather than a change in legislation?
See above:
I don’t know why the legislature wouldn’t have the authority, but the article doesn’t explain that part (darn journalists).
that does seem odd…well, at least it’s being rectified.
been a long time since I was in Iowa–Terry Braindead was still governor <shudder>
Perhaps convicted felons should form a “voting bloc” and cast symbolic votes in presidential elections.
Then maybe the parties would sit up and take notice. If politicians don’t care that felons have already paid their debt to society by completing their sentences, maybe they will care about all those potential votes to be exploited.