On May 22, 2019, the Nevada Legislature passed a bill, AB 431, which would automatically restore the right to vote following a past felony conviction, helping an estimated 77,000 citizens. Campaign Legal Center (CLC) sent a letter to Governor Steve Sisolak urging him to sign this bill as soon as possible because voting is a fundamental right...
At a Glance
While previous Nevada law was one of the most complicated to navigate in the country, as of July 1, 2019 a new law restores voting rights in the state upon completion of any prison term. With this change, Nevada will join the growing number of states that are restoring the right to vote to people with convictions.
Campaign Legal Center has worked to restore voting rights to people with past convictions in Nevada by providing direct rights restoration services, empowering community leaders to understand rights restoration laws in the state, and breaking down the false notion that a felony conviction always means you cannot vote.
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About this Action
Starting on July 1, 2019, Nevada voting rights will be restored to people with felony convictions upon completion of any prison term. A new law passed in May 2019 will restore voting rights to more than 77,000 Nevadans. Previous Nevada law was one of the most complicated to navigate in the country. With this change, Nevada will join the growing number of states that are restoring the right to vote to people with convictions.
Prior to the law change, whether a person could vote depended on how many felony convictions they have, the category of the conviction(s), and in what year they completed their sentence. For some, their voting rights were restored once they completed their sentence. Others who were eligible to get their right to vote back after a conviction were required to petition the court to restore their rights – a process that many did not know about.
As a result, many Nevadans with past convictions who are eligible to vote simply do not know that they can participate. There are nearly 90,000 people in Nevada who have lost their voting right because of a conviction but over two-thirds of them are post-sentence, meaning they can apply to restore their voting rights. Yet only 281 people used the court petition process to restore their rights from 1990-2011 – an average of only 13 per year.
But a little bit of education and outreach will go a long way to assisting people to exercise their fundamental right to vote. In fall 2018, we sent Restore Your Vote organizers to Las Vegas and Reno to assist individuals with past convictions, train voter registration and re-entry organizations on the law, and support and build sustainable networks of assistance. The organizers helped hundreds of people start on the path to rights restoration and trained hundreds of community leaders and canvassers to be able to help others.
We continue to work with individuals and organizations in Nevada to smooth out the rights restoration process and make it accessible to everyone.
If you are trying to determine whether you can vote in Nevada, please access our online tool here.