Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton would like formerly imprisoned felons to be able to vote in Minnesota, he said Wednesday. “We should let people who have served their sentences, paid their debt to society, be given their chance to restore their active participation in our … democratic process,” the Democratic-Farmer-Labor governor said. With his comments, Dayton waded into a debate that has roiled the state and nation. On Tuesday, the Minnesota Senate approved a measure to allow felons to vote after they served their sentences. Last week, Virginia’s governor used his executive power to restore voting rights to felons who are on supervised release in that state. Other states have also grappled with laws that limit felons ability to vote evening after they have served their prison sentences.
Dayton said he would like to negate Minnesota’s law, which bans felons from voting if they are on probation or supervised release, unilaterally as did the governor of Virginia. But, he said, he lacks that authority.
“We looked very carefully to see what the boundaries are,” the governor said. “I think people who have served their time and paid their debt to society deserve to be re-enfranchised as citizens of this country.”
Dayton has some bipartisan company in that sentiment. Although allowing those who have served prison time to vote largely has support from Democrats, including presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and many DFLers in the Minnesota Legislature, Republicans have also supported changes to the felon voting rules.
Full Article: Dayton advocates voting rights for released felons | Duluth News Tribune.