The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that convicted felons are allowed to vote in state and federal elections just a week before the state’s voter registration deadline for this year’s general election.
The new law will allow thousands of convicted criminals who have finished their sentences to vote, ruling against Republican Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen, who signed legislation taking the voting rights away from those who committed crimes.
“Because the requisite number of judges have not found that the statutory amendments are unconstitutional, we issue a peremptory writ of mandamus directing the Secretary and the election commissioners to implement the statutory amendments immediately,” the court order read.
In 2005, the state ruled that convicted felons could register to vote two years after completing all the terms of their sentence. However, a bipartisan majority of state senators ended the two-year waiting period in April. This meant previously convicted criminals could immediately register to vote after serving prison.
Evnen’s order came after an opinion from Nebraska’s attorney general, Mike Hilgers, who stated that LB 20 was unconstitutional because only the state’s Board of Pardons, not the legislature, could restore criminal voting rights. However, in their ruling, the state Supreme Court’s panel of judges found Evnen “was unable to establish his defense that the statutes were unconstitutional.” As a result, the court ordered Evnen to “remove any disqualification on registration he has imposed that is not contained within L.B. 20.”
The ruling comes just weeks before one of U.S. history's most critical presidential elections. Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District has one of the most competitive House races, which could give a presidential candidate a critical electoral vote.
“Because the parties agree that the two persons having unpardoned felony convictions before us in this case have completed their sentences, I cannot say that the respondent Secretary of State has met the high burden here. Thus, I concur in the judgment,” Judge William Cassel wrote in an agreeing opinion. “But I caution that any attempt by the Legislature to restore rights at some earlier time is likely to collide directly with the pardon power conferred upon the Board of Pardons.”
In 2015, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned that the “majority of violent criminals are Democrats” following the deadly shooting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado.
Cruz cautioned that because the left is typically soft on crime, convicted felons tend to vote Democrat.
“The overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats. The media doesn’t report that. What they report, and there’s a reason why the Democrats for years have been viewed as soft on crime because they go in and they appoint to the bench judges who release violent criminals,” Cruz said. “They go in and fight to give the right to vote to convicted felons. Why? Because the Democrats know convicted felons tend to vote Democrat.”