Nebraska Attorney General Disenfranchises Voters Who Completed Sentences For Felony Convictions
Nebraska Attorney General Michael Hilgers (R) issued an opinion Wednesday saying a state law allowing people with felony convictions to register to vote after serving their sentences is unconstitutional.
The law in question, Legislative Bill 20, passed without Gov. Jim Pillen’s (R) signature in April and was supposed to go into effect on Thursday. The legislation states once a person completes their sentence for a felony conviction, they can immediately register to vote.
This is an amendment to a 2005 law, Legislative Bill 53, that allowed people to register to vote two years after completing a felony sentence.
After the bill passed the state’s Republican-controlled Senate, Pillen wrote a letter to the legislature saying there were “potential constitutional issues” with LB20 but he would still allow it to become law. He encouraged the attorney general and secretary of state to take appropriate measures “in light of the constitutional infirmities.”
In his 18-page opinion, Hilgers argues that “The Constitution vests the power to restore a felon’s
right to vote in the Board of Pardons not the Legislature,” so LB20 and the 2005 law it amended “violate the Separation of Powers Clause of the Nebraska Constitution.”
The Nebraska Board of Pardons is composed of the governor, attorney general and secretary of state.
Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen (R) released a statement Wednesday saying he will follow Hilgers’ guidance, and he directed county election offices to stop registering individuals convicted of felonies who have not been pardoned by the state board.
Evnen said at the Board of Pardons’ meeting on August 20, he will request “the restoration of voting rights” for currently registered voters with felony convictions who lawfully registered to vote under LB53. He clarified that he will not purge individuals from voter rolls prior to this meeting.
The ACLU of Nebraska declared in a statement that they are “promising action” in response to Evnen’s directive because it “threatens to deny a voice to thousands of Nebraskans in this November’s election.”
The organization explained that LB53 would have allowed 7,000 Nebraskans to register to vote this year.
“It really is this simple: we refuse to accept thousands of Nebraskans having their voting rights stripped away,” said Jane Seu, legal and policy counsel at the ACLU of Nebraska. “We are confident in the constitutionality of these laws, and we are exploring every option to ensure that Nebraskans who have done their time can vote.”
Read the attorney general’s opinion here.