Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack announced Friday June 17th that he will sign an executive order on July 4th to streamline the process of restoring voting rights to ex-felons. The order will return voting rights to an estimated 80,000 Iowans who would otherwise have needed to petition the governor under the current law.

Vilsack’s order follows a similar move by Nebraska’s state legislature in March that restored voting rights to ex-felons. There are now only four states- Florida, Kentucky, Alabama and Virginia- that completely deny the right to vote to people with previous felony convictions.

FairVote believes that Iowa's effort is an important step towards ensuring an equal right to vote that cannot be abridged simply on account of a citizen's state of residence.

[ More on felon voting rights ]
[ Read the New York Times article ]