(Headline USA) The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a 2023 state law that restores voting rights for felons once they have completed their prison sentences.
The new law was popular with Democrats in the state, including Gov. Tim Walz, who signed it and who is Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the presidential race. The timing of the decision is important because early voting for next week’s primary election is already underway. Voting for the Nov. 5 general election begins Sept. 20.
The court rejected a challenge from the Minnesota Voters Alliance. A lower court judge had previously thrown out the group’s lawsuit after deciding it lacked the legal standing to sue and failed to prove that the Legislature overstepped its authority when it voted to expand voting rights for people who were formerly incarcerated for a felony. The high court agreed.
Before the new law, felons had to complete their probation before they could regain their eligibility to vote. An estimated 55,000 people with felony records gained the right to vote as a result.
Far-left Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison had been pushing for the change since he was in the Legislature.
“Democracy is not guaranteed—it is earned by protecting and expanding it,” Ellison said in a statement.
“I’m proud to restore the vote is definitively the law of the land today more than 20 years after I first proposed it as a state legislator,” said Ellison, the former deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee. “I encourage all Minnesotans who are eligible to vote to do so and to take full part in our democracy.”
Nebraska officials went the other way and decided last month that residents with felony convictions could still be denied voting rights. That decision by Nebraska’s attorney general and secretary of state has been challenged in a lawsuit.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
