Nebraska court allows voter registrations from people with felony convictions

Nebraskans with felony convictions may register to vote after the state’s highest court ruled Wednesday that a top election official had no authority to deem a law restoring those rights unconstitutional.

The Nebraska Supreme Court ordered election officials to expeditiously put the law in effect, which will restore the voting rights of thousands of Nebraskans who have finished serving their felony convictions. The decision could have resounding implications for the upcoming election.

In July, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen said county election officials should not accept the voter registrations of people with felony convictions after the state’s attorney general issued an opinion deeming the law unconstitutional.

Since 2005, Nebraskans with felony convictions could register to vote two years after completing all the terms of their sentence. A bipartisan majority of state senators ended the two-year waiting period in April, making it so people previously convicted of felonies could immediately register to vote after finishing their sentence.

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers’s opinion invalidating the law was issued just two days before it was set to go into effect. He argued that only Nebraska’s Board of Pardons — made up of himself, Evnen and Gov. Jim Pillen, all Republicans — were empowered to restore voting rights.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which litigated the case on behalf of two Nebraskans seeking ballot access — a Republican and an independent — and the nonprofit Civic Nebraska, said the order could have kept 7,000 or more residents from voting this November.