LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska lawmakers gave initial approval Friday to a bill that would allow people convicted of felonies to vote when they complete their prison sentences and any parole or probation.
Senators voted 28-8 to eliminate the state’s two-year waiting period, which Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha says continues to disenfranchise Nebraska residents who are racial minorities. People of color made up about 15 percent of the state’s population in the most recent census and nearly half of its prisoners.
“This disenfranchisement law is at best profoundly outdated,” Wayne said. “At worst, it’s discrimination against minority voters.”
The bill would affect about 7,800 felons in Nebraska.
Restoring voting rights is an important step to helping former felons engage with their community and prevent them from returning to prison, he said. In Florida, where many felons’ voting rights were restored automatically from 2007 to 2011, a 2011 report from the Florida Parole Commission found a recidivism rate of 11 percent among felons who had voting rights restored, compared to 33 percent among felons before the 2007 policy change.
Nebraska lawmakers have emphasized overhauling the state’s prison system and reforming sentencing to save money and reduce prison overcrowding.
“This restriction of a two-year waiting period is not only unnecessary and unjust, but it is counterproductive to what this body says is important,” Wayne said.
He said a March 1 committee hearing on the bill featured powerful testimony from people who were barred from voting, including Darlene Mason, 35, of York.
Mason was the first person in her family to cast a ballot, driving through snow in 2000 to vote for George W. Bush, but she lost her voting rights in 2014 when she was sentenced to three years of probation for defending herself from an abusive boyfriend.
“Does giving someone the label of felon mean that I am no longer a citizen of the country I was born and raised in?” Mason said during the hearing. “I chose to fight for my life and in essence gave up my rights as a citizen.”
People convicted of certain types of felonies, including voter fraud, should not be able to vote, said Sen. John Murante of Gretna.
“It is difficult for me to say that it is in the best interest of Nebraska to have these folks in polling places or around ballots,” Murante said.
Murante is considering a run for Nebraska secretary of state and has prioritized a bill this session that would task voters with approving a constitutional amendment requiring photo ID to vote. Voter fraud is rare in Nebraska: Two of the more than 860,000 residents who voted in the 2016 general elections are facing charges of voter fraud, and one man was convicted in 2012 for voting in both Kansas and Nebraska.
Murante also questioned whether Wayne’s bill would violate Nebraska’s constitution, which states that felons lose their voting rights unless their civil rights are restored. Wayne said that part of the constitution was a backlash to the 14th and 15th amendments, which asserted former slaves were citizens with the right to vote.
Thirteen states and the District of Columbia restore voting rights immediately after release, while another 24 automatically allow felons to vote when they have completed parole or probation.
A spokesman for Gov. Pete Ricketts did not immediately respond to a phone call or email about the governor’s stance on the bill.
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