Latest Voting rights News
Mississippi lawmakers move toward restoring voting rights to 32 felons as broader suffrage bill dies
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators advanced bills Monday to give voting rights back to 32 people convicted of felonies, weeks after a Senate leader killed a broader bill that would have restored suffrage to many more people with criminal records. The move is necessary...
Lawsuits under New York's new voting rights law reveal racial disenfranchisement even in blue states
FREEPORT, N.Y. (AP) — Weihua Yan had seen dramatic demographic changes since moving to Long Island's Nassau County. Its Asian American population alone had grown by 60% since the 2010 census. Why then, he wondered, did he not see anyone who looked like him on the county's local...
Mississippi legislators won't smooth the path this year to restore voting rights after some felonies
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Kenneth Almons says he began a sentence in a Mississippi prison just two weeks after graduating from high school, and one of his felony convictions — for armed robbery — stripped away voting rights that he still has not regained decades later. Now 51,...
Nebraska lawmakers end session, leaving taxes for later
Nebraska lawmakers adjourned Thursday knowing they'll be called back by Republican Gov. Jim Pillen for a summer session to ease soaring property taxes. A Pillen-backed sales tax expansion failed on the last day of the session after its author, Omaha Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, pulled it...
Nebraska lawmakers pass a bill to restore voting rights to newly released felons
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers passed a bill Thursday to restore the voting rights of those convicted of felonies upon the completion of their sentences, including prison and parole time. The bill, introduced for years by Omaha state Sen. Justin Wayne, passed by a wide...
Tennessee bill to untangle gun and voting rights restoration is killed for the year
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers have killed a bipartisan bill for the year that would have let residents convicted of felonies apply to vote again without also restoring their gun rights. Democratic Rep. Antonio Parkinson and Republican Sen. Paul Bailey advanced the...
Editorial Roundup: Minnesota
Minneapolis Star Tribune. April 4, 2024. Editorial: No hostility to voting in Minnesota, please Legislature should pass Voting Rights Act to counteract efforts to suppress participation. Minnesota is known for its relatively high voter participation...
Tennessee bill untangling gun and voting rights restoration advances, but faces uncertain odds
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee residents convicted of felonies can apply to vote again without restoring their gun rights under a bipartisan bill that faces some GOP skepticism as it advances late this session. The effort by Democratic Rep. Antonio Parkinson and Republican Sen....
States move to shore up voting rights protections after courts erode federal safeguards
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — An appeals court ruling that weakened a key part of the Voting Rights Act is spurring lawmakers in several states to enact state-level protections to plug gaps that the ruling opened in the landmark federal law aimed at prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. ...
Editorial Roundup: Mississippi
Greenwood Commonwealth. March 5, 2024. Editorial: House Weighs Fix To Felon Voting Ban Mississippi’s lifetime ban on most — but not all — felons is being challenged in the courts and at the state Capitol. This is something the Legislature can fix,...
