Felons have always lost rights.
It is a heavy burden on the Governor to show there is no injury by changing that.
So he lies.
One problem of today is a dilution of the idea of felony. Look crosswise at a police dog and one might get charged with that nowadays. And small pot growers, etc. As social engineers have turned the body of law into such a complex web of bans that if it WAS ever enforced evenly it would become not a bulwark but a monster, people are less likely to want to have much to do with it.
And “conservatives” who have veered into nanny statism have been ensnared by “liberals” into playing the same game.
That was the intent, I think.