Restore the Vote

Unlike many other states1, Minnesota does not allow people convicted of a felony to vote while on probation or parole. Currently there are approximately 57,000 Minnesotans unable to vote due to a felony conviction, about 1.5 percent of the voting age population. About 47,000 live in communities across Minnesota while on probation or supervised release. Of these, more than half (64 percent) live in communities outside of Hennepin and Ramsey Counties.2
Voting disenfranchisement has a strong racial bias, disproportionately affecting 7.7 percent of African American and 5.9 percent of American Indian Minnesotans, compared to 1.1 percent of White Minnesotans.3 The position of the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition is that Minnesota should change its rule to allow felony offenders to vote once they are released from incarceration. As outlined in detail below, we believe this policy change could foster
civic participation, combat racial disparities in our criminal justice system, and promote public safety.

Faith Perspective

Although individuals with felony convictions have made serious mistakes, nearly all return to the community and we all have a stake in the success of their return. Scriptures tell us that God is willing to forgive, teaching “If a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him.”4 God also encourages us to actively pursue reconciliation: “The recompense for an evil is an evil like thereof, but whoever forgives and makes
reconciliation, his reward is due from Allah.”5

In Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice (2000), the U.S. Catholic Bishops wrote: “Just as God never abandons us, so too we must be in covenant with one another. We are all sinners, and our response to sin and failure should not be abandonment and despair, but rather justice, contrition, reparation, and return or re-integration of all into the community.”

Our faith teachings urge us to keep an open mind, to encourage reconciliation, and to give people an opportunity to rejoin the community. Disenfranchisement for those on parole and probation denies them an important opportunity to help govern, belong, and fully participate in community life.