Nevada passes bill to automatically restore felons' voting rights upon release from prison

Reno Gazette-Journal

Nevada could soon become the 39th state to automatically restore voting rights to people released from prison.

The Nevada Legislature on Wednesday passed Assembly Bill 431, which would immediately allow ex-felons to vote, including those convicted in another state. The bill also allows people convicted of a crime, but not imprisoned, to cast a ballot. The measure applies retroactively to previously released offenders.

If signed by Gov. Steve Sisolak, AB 431 would take effect on July 1. All eight Republicans in the state Senate opposed the bill, arguing it went too easy on people convicted of serious, violent crimes. It fared better in the Assembly, where three Republicans joined 29 Democrats to advance the measure.

More:Attorneys suspect tens of thousands of Nevadans wrongly stripped of right to vote

The bill arrives on the governor’s desk more than a year after voting rights advocates threatened legal action if Nevada didn’t clarify felons’ rights on its voter registration forms.

Attorneys with the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit focused on election law, raised concerns that the wording on the voter sign-up sheets could lead residents with a past conviction to think they’re not eligible to vote.

Voter forms issued at the time required applicants to state they are “not laboring under any felony conviction or other loss of civil rights that would make it unlawful for me to vote.” That's despite the fact that Nevada has long allowed first-time, non-violent felony offenders to register at the end of their sentence. Only those convicted of two felonies, or one or more violent felonies, are barred from voting in the state.

The Nevada Secretary of State’s office later issued a memo to county clerks stating that a signed state form should suffice as “satisfactory evidence” of a convict’s restored right to vote.

AB 431 aims to eliminate any lingering confusion over an ex-prisoner’s eligibility, prompting plaudits even from strident critics of Nevada’s election statutes.

Corey Goldstone, a spokesman for the Campaign Legal Center, estimated the bill would restore voting rights to more than 77,000 residents.

“In our experience through Restore Your Vote, it is not entirely uncommon for some Nevada residents to have California convictions and still be on supervision – meaning they could currently vote in Nevada,” Goldstone wrote in a Thursday email. “(Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson) amended the bill to reflect these concerns, changing it to simply restore rights to everyone post-incarceration.

“This is a very significant change. Nevada is about to go from being one of the most complicated states in the country to navigate to being one of the most straightforward and fair.”

Frierson, D-Las Vegas, praised the bill’s passage as “an important step towards advancing democracy.”

Sisolak, an outspoken proponent of election reforms such as same-day registration and expanded early voting, is expected to sign the measure in the coming weeks.

James DeHaven is the politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal. He covers campaigns, the Nevada Legislature and everything in between. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com right here.