Posted on 08/06/2020 9:28:01 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an executive order Wednesday granting convicted felons the right to vote after they complete their sentences, ending Iowa’s place as the only remaining state to broadly deny voting rights to felons.
Reynolds, a Republican, fulfilled a promise she made to issue the order. She said she'll continue to push the Legislature to pass a constitutional amendment preventing future governors from overturning it.
Her order will not automatically restore voting rights to felons convicted of certain crimes, including first- and second-degree murder, attempted murder, fetal homicide and some sex offenses. Such felons would still need to petition the governor for the restoration of their voting rights. The order will not require felons to make full financial restitution to their victims before they'll be allowed to vote — a requirement that was opposed by Black Lives Matter, the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, which called for a a no-strings-attached order.
The order will restore the rights to an estimated 40,000 people who have completed prison sentences, probation and parole, said Betty Andrews, president of the Iowa-Nebraska NAACP, which has worked for several years for the change.
"We absolutely encourage people to take this day and register," she said. “Now our work is to make sure that people are registered and understand as of today they don't need to do paperwork, they don't need to do anything like that. As of today they are allowed to vote.”
Mark Stringer, the executive director of the ACLU of Iowa, lauded Reynold's order as a victory for the state.
Reynolds has made the issue a priority, previously discussing her own struggle with alcoholism and drunken driving arrests.
(Excerpt) Read more at aol.com ...
Rep. Ako Abdul Samad, a Black lawmaker who worked for two years with Reynolds on the issue, said it’s just one step in the broader fight against racial injustice.
“You need to help us show that black lives matter and if black lives did matter this wouldn’t have been such a hoorah today. This would have been something that was already automatic,” he said.
I’m fine with this. And people need to stop assuming all former felons (whatever race or combination thereof they are) vote Democrat. Some do end up conservative.
I’m good with this. If you’ve served your time you have paid your debt to society. We make it too hard for ex cons to re-enter society. The faster we can get them to re-assimilate, the better. Recidivism rates would definitely fall if these roadblocks were removed.
There are people in Canada, Europe and All over the world that would like to vote in USA elections. Of course they have never been to the USA or would even care to visit but I’m sure that they would all like to vote in USA elections. I’m sure that Nazi Pelousi would love to have them vote with absentee ballots. /sarc.
Why even vote for the GOP at this point? They keep enacting the Democrats agenda for them and NOBODY is asking them. They’re all traitors.
I’m fine with this as long as they can legally own firearms, too. If the completion of a sentence means a felon is a free citizen in good standing, then let’s make that really mean what it says.
Granting voting rights won’t change the culture that enabled their incarceration in the first place.
They need to do the same thing regardng gun rights. Once you do your time, you’ve paid your debt.
So only black ex-cons can vote?
I’m not fine with this. Part of the punishment for having been convicted of a felony is the permanent loss of certain rights including the right to vote. I see no reason to further reduce the already low amount of punishment for felony crimes.
If she made a campaign promise and fulfilled it, then the people in her state should be satisfied.
What's the problem?
Vast majority of non-white collar criminals are Democrats, last I saw it was 69%.
I’m not fine with this.
Obviously so they can vote democrat.
Considering the vastly increased numbers of offenses that have been inflated to felony status (with enthusiastic RINO support), I have zero problem with this. It’s not a racial issue. We’re something like 96% white in this state. People of all colors and both parties have been asking to have this done here for years. If they’re fit to be released, they’re free citizens again. If they aren’t, they stay locked up. Simple.
In addition some ninety percent of felony crimes should be eliminated. There really should be so few felony level crimes that everyone should be able to memorize and recite them.
Then you are for a Scarlet letter. That’s just wrong.
Restoring voting rights doesn’t go far enough, the entire racist legal-judicial-penal system should be disassembled and replaced by a process that detains suspected law breakers so that their identity may be verified for future counseling sessions, in the case of persons of color, or confinement and punishment for white villains.
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