DES MOINES – The Iowa House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill restoring voting rights to felons, but these convicted crooks won’t be in the voting booth anytime soon.
Gov. Reynolds released the following statement after the Iowa House of Representatives passed House Joint Resolution 14, proposing an amendment to the Iowa Constitution to restore the voting rights of felons:
“Today’s strong bipartisan vote is a victory for Iowans who deserve a second chance. There’s a broad coalition of supporters behind this constitutional amendment, and I will continue working with members of the Iowa Senate to move the process forward, allowing Iowans a vote on this important issue.”
The vote was 95-2. The bill must go to the Senate next and then the proposal would face the legislature again before voters would be asked to approve an amendment to the state’s constitution to make felon voting rights official.
Now give them back their firearms rights, supposedly the prison sentence was the debt to society so do these people have restricted rights after they serve time? Obviously violent felonies or ones involving the use of firearms shouldn’t get rights back as easily. But, there are good people that made a mistake. There should be a process that allows them to get rights back so they can hunt and target shoot. Obviously we could keep black criminals or meth heads from that program for safety….
Hopefully the Secretary of State won’t forget the file the paperwork on this measure like he has in the past.