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Joined 9 days ago
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Cake day: October 21st, 2024

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  • Whole thing was a good read. Thanks for linking it.

    So there are eligible voters in the USA literally afraid to try voting in case they’re jailed for it. It’s not just confusion.

    Fear also drives reluctance. In the face of confusing eligibility regulations, people who are trying to put a criminal conviction behind them often don’t want to risk making a mistake that could send them back to prison. In Florida, several people faced that exact possibility in 2022, after an office set up by Gov. Ron DeSantis began arresting voters who allegedly cast ballots while ineligible to do so.

    For example, in Nebraska, the bill legislators passed this year changed state law to allow anyone with a felony conviction to register to vote upon completion of their sentence. This modified a 2005 law that automatically restored voting rights for people with felony convictions but required a two-year waiting period upon completion of a sentence.

    But then a non-binding opinion by Attorney General Mike Hilgers suggested that not only this year’s law but also the prior 2005 law were unconstitutional, creating a significant cloud of uncertainty for impacted people until this week’s state Supreme Court ruling.

    “We were getting lots of calls from people, ‘I’m not going to bother. It worries me too much, and I’m not going to go back to prison,’” said Smith, with Civic Nebraska.