Iowa still bars ex-felons from voting, frustrating Democratic caucusgoers

Image: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds delivers her Condition of the State address before a joint session of the Iowa Legislature on Jan. 9, 2018, at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. Copyright Charlie Neibergall AP file
By Adam Edelman with NBC News Politics
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The state's Republican governor wants to fix the issue via state constitutional amendment, frustrating Democrats and advocates who have pushed for more immediate action.

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DES MOINES, Iowa — With the first nominating contest of the 2020 election a day away, Democratic voters here are voicing frustration that their first-in-the-nation caucus state is the only one in the nation that still outright bans former felons from voting without prior approval from the governor.

Under Iowa law, people with felony convictions who have completed their prison sentence cannot vote unless they apply directly to the governor for that right to be restored. Voting rights advocates — and Democratic voters — say it's a major blemish on a state that prides itself on helping the nation to pick its presidential candidates.

"It's embarrassing," Melissa Feilmeier-Marzen, a resident of Robins, Iowa, told NBC News at a rally for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Saturday.

"Voting rights matter. And people should have voting rights no matter their past, present or future," added Feilmeier-Marzen, a 40-year-old teacher.

Iowa became the last state with a ban on voting rights for former felons after Kentucky's newly-sworn-in Democratic governor signed an executive order in December to restore voting rights to more than 100,000 people who've been convicted of felonies. In 2016, then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, signed an executive order that made the restoration of voting rights to ex-felons who had completed their sentences automatic. And in Florida, in 2018, voters approved a ballot measure that restored voting rights to people with felony convictions. The GOP-controlled state legislature later imposed restrictions on those individuals that many critics likened to a "poll tax." That law was then challenged in court, and a federal judge ruled in October to block the law, at least temporarily.

That, for the moment at least, leaves Iowa as the only state with the ban in place, experts said.

"Iowa is the worst of the worst on this policy. It is the last and only state that permanently disenfranchise people with convictions in their past without government action," said Myrna Perez, the director of the voting rights and elections program at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York. "It has been out of step with the rest of the country for years, and now it's on island on this issue."

Under Iowa law, former felons have to individually apply to the governor for their right to vote to be reinstated. Perez and other experts told NBC News, however, that the amount of former felons with access to that information and the resources and ability to actually go through the application process is minimal.

They also pointed out that the ban disproportionately affects African Americans, who are incarcerated at a rate five times that of white people.

According to the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice reform and advocacy group, approximately 24,000 former felons in Iowa are currently eligible to apply to have their voting rights reinstated. But only a fraction of those have done so.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds delivers her Condition of the State address before a joint session of the Iowa Legislature on Jan. 9, 2018, at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds delivers her Condition of the State address before a joint session of the Iowa Legislature on Jan. 9, 2018, at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa.Charlie Neibergall

"One of the biggest challenges is that there is generally very little public education about this, and very little effort by the state to inform people affected of their rights," said Marc Mauer, the group's executive director. "In a place like Iowa, there's a very modest number of people who know they can apply and who know there's a governor who is receptive to restoring voting rights."

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, has repeatedly said she wants the voting rights for former felons restored. But she wants it done via an amendment to the state Constitution — which would have to be passed through the state legislature — and has ruled out signing an executive order (like the ones in Kentucky and Virginia) that might restore those rights immediately. Reynolds proposed a Constitutional amendment to the state legislature last year. It passed the GOP-controlled state House but died in the GOP-controlled state Senate.

Reynolds, however, vowed last month to clear the existing backlog of applications by former felons who had applied to have their voting rights restored before the Iowa caucuses, so they could participate.

On Friday, her office confirmed to NBC News that she had, in fact, completed the approval process for the more than 400 applications that had been pending since the start of the year. Reynolds' office said they received more than 800 applications in 2019 and granted 292.

Experts like Mauer, however, point out that that is "a small fraction of that overall eligible population."

In Iowa, the path on this particular policy has been unwieldy. The current law has been on the books for years, but in 2005, then-Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, signed an executive order restoring voting rights to most former felons. But in 2011, his successor, then-Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, signed an executive order rescinding Vilsack's.

Reynolds has cited that temporary nature of executive action as the primary reason she doesn't want to use it as a tool to restore voting rights for ex-felons.

Iowa Democrats told NBC News that Reynolds deserves at least some plaudits for her desire to work on the issue — but were generally disapproving of her decision to not do so with executive action.

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"Here in Iowa, I believe if someone has served their time and is trying to get back into society, their rights should be restored," Marcele Kaduce, 74, from Solon, Iowa, said at a campaign event for former Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday.

Mel Schlachter, a retiree from Iowa City, who is supporting Warren, said that "it's time to do it."

"The good news is that the present governor wants to change this through the Constitutional amendment. The bad news is that she's unwilling to do anything herself until they do that," he said. "But ex-felons will languish because of that."

"She could do it immediately if she wanted to," Schlachter said.

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