Hunter
06/16/20
After the Iowa Legislature adjourned without putting a bill up for vote to restore voting rights to felons, Governor Kim Reynolds says she’ll issue an executive order to make it happen.
The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that Reynolds met with leaders from Black Lives Matter, the Iowa ACLU and the state chapter of the NAACP Monday. Details of the executive order have not been presented, but Reynolds pledge to issue the order before the November election.
The governor was hoping to have an amendment to the Constitution added to provide for the change, which requires it to be passed by two consecutive legislatures and then put up for a majority vote among Iowa citizens. Unlike an executive order, it is more difficult to undo.
When Tom Vilsack was governor, of the state, he issued a 2005 executive order granting automatic voting rights to felons who completed their sentences, but Governor Terry Branstad reversed it with an executive order of his own five years later.
Iowa is currently the only state that requires felons to petition the governor to restore their voting rights.