A new law restores voting for the formerly incarcerated. Minnesota is spreading the word in prisons.

State officials estimate the change will affect 55,000 people

Mar 22, 20240

Glen Stubbe, Star Tribune count

Secretary of State Steve Simon talks to people incarcerated at the prison in St. Cloud about the state's new law restoring voting rights to people with felony convictions as soon as they leave prison.

Behind a 22-foot-high granite wall and layers of metal security gates, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon ran through the state's voter registration rules and how to cast a ballot absentee before Election Day.

His audience: more than a dozen people incarcerated at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud who will soon be released and can vote in the November election under a new state law.

"The minute you step out of here, you get your right to vote back," Simon told the group, all part of the facility's reentry program.

https://www.startribune.com/a-new-law-restores-voting-rights-to-felony-offenders-minnesota-is-spreading-the-word-in-prisons/600353095/