By Julia Shumway
Associated Press
LINCOLN, Neb. — A Nebraska legislative committee advanced a bill Wednesday that would give people convicted of crimes the right to vote when they complete their sentences.
Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha told the committee the state’s 2005 law that allows felons to vote two years after they finish their sentences doesn’t do enough. A bill he sponsored and intends to designate as his priority, increasing the odds lawmakers will vote on it, would restore voting rights to felons as soon as they complete their sentences, including any parole or probation.
It would affect about 7,800 felons in Nebraska, including Shakur Abdullah, who was released from prison last year. Abdullah, who served 41 years for shooting two men and killing one when he was 16, told the committee he’s never been able to vote. He now helps others involved in the criminal justice system.
“My felony conviction hasn’t forfeited my citizenship,” he said. “When you think of this as a faceless issue, I want you to remember my face.”
Wayne said the state’s constitutional ban on voting for felons who haven’t had their civil rights restored was a direct response to the 14th and 15th amendments, which asserted that former slaves and other people of color were citizens with the right to vote. And he said the law still disenfranchises a disproportionate number of racial minorities, who in the last census made up 15 percent of Nebraska’s population and nearly half of its prisoners.
“This can no longer be a partisan issue,” Wayne said. “We can no longer disenfranchise people who made a mistake and have completed their sentence.”
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.
The states with laws similar to Wayne’s proposal span the political spectrum. But Republicans in several states, including neighboring Iowa, have opposed allowing felons to vote.
Nebraska’s law delaying the right to vote until two years after the completion of a sentence makes identifying and reaching out to newly eligible voters difficult, said Douglas County Assessor Diana Battiato, who worked on the 2005 law. She said the state should create a database of felons who are now eligible to vote and make sure they have information about registering.
The two-year timespan was simply a political compromise to make sure the bill had enough support, said Lowen Kruse, a former senator who co-sponsored the 2005 law and supports Wayne’s bill.
Since the 2005 law took effect, Nebraska has passed prison reform efforts including a law that requires parole time after release for nearly all sentences. Under Wayne’s bill, parolees still would be ineligible to vote.
Sen. Mike Hilgers, a Republican from Lincoln and member of the committee, said he saw when going door-to-door campaigning and registering voters that some ex-felons still didn’t know if they could vote. He said he wanted to see research on the connection between voting and community engagement.
“You want people to re-engage with society,” he said. “You don’t want them to go back to jail.”