Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signs bill that grants formerly incarcerated residents in the state the right to vote immediately upon their release from prison.
The bill was passed in the Democratic Party-controlled state legislature earlier this year after several years of litigation challenging the previous standard for voting rights. In 2019, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the state, arguing that the old standard
. In February of this year, the state Supreme Court ordered the state legislature to take up the issue as a result of that lawsuit, which Democrats had already been considering.“People who are prohibited from voting, they have to pay their taxes, they have to obey all the laws, they have to do everything, but they don’t have any choice in who represents them,” Ellison said in a statement. “Now they do.”, a formerly incarcerated person who has been on probation and unable to vote since 2016.
Many voting rights advocates noted that the law is a step in the right direction, but called for states to stop disenfranchising incarcerated people altogether. “Those of us in prison are severely affected by our inability to vote,” wrote Joseph Dole, who is serving life in prison without parole for a crime he says he didn’t commit, in an
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