Elections officials clear way for more people with felony convictions to vote in Nevada
More than 500 Clark County residents who were rejected from the voter rolls this year because of a felony conviction will remain eligible to complete their registration as part of an agreement with a group that’s trying to expand restoration of felons’ voting rights.
The Campaign Legal Center, which has staff in Nevada trying to encourage ex-felons to participate in elections through the Restore Your Vote campaign, announced Tuesday that it had reached a deal with state and Clark County election officials amid confusion about how convicted felons needed to prove they had their voting rights restored. The agreement allows people to sign an affidavit about their restored voting rights while registering or at the polling place, rather than dig up proof of their eligibility to complete the process.
“Nevada voters should not be disenfranchised due to an unnecessary paperwork requirement,” Blair Bowie, a legal fellow at CLC, said in a statement. “We are pleased that the Nevada Secretary of State and Clark County registrar worked with us to resolve this issue amicably, so that the voters could be reinstated in time for the November elections. It is critical that Nevadans and voters around the country receive accurate information about their state’s voting rights restoration requirements.”
Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria said the county was not disenfranchising voters, but that under the previous process, people with a conviction would have either had to show discharge paperwork or come into his office, sign an affidavit that they were eligible to vote and have it notarized. The 500 or so people with felony convictions who had tried to register this year but hadn’t completed those steps and were rejected were sent a letter last week saying that, under the terms of the agreement with CLC, they could show up to a polling place and re-activate their aborted registration process.
Read more: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/elections-officials-clear-way-for-more-people-with-felony-convictions-to-vote-in-nevada