Brazen Move in Nebraska Threatens to Silence Eligible Voters

On July 17, 2024, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers issued an opinion questioning the legal validity of Legislative Bill 20, which would have eliminated the requirement that individuals wait two years after completing their felony sentences before becoming eligible to vote. Although Legislative Bill 20 reflected the will of the people, Hilgers argued that only the Nebraska Board of Pardons—composed of the governor, the secretary of state, and the attorney general (himself)—could restore the voting rights of individuals with past felony convictions. 

Shortly after Hilgers issued his opinion, which came just days before the new voting rights restoration law was to go into effect, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen directed election officials to stop registering voters with past felony convictions who had not received official pardons. 

To undermine the will of the people and potentially disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters is shameful and unjustifiable.

“The Nebraska Legislature made it clear that Americans believe in second chances,” said Roni Druks, Senior Counsel at Dēmos. “To undermine the will of the people and potentially disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters is shameful and unjustifiable.” 

Ultimately these actions could disenfranchise thousands of Nebraska voters who would have been eligible to cast a ballot under Legislative Bill 20. In effect, Hilgers’ opinion creates a system that makes rights restoration extremely unlikely for anyone with a felony conviction. According to the Associated Press, “pardons are exceedingly rare to come by in Nebraska, which requires those convicted of felonies to wait 10 years after their terms to even file an application for a pardon.”

“This risks setting up a system that harkens back to some of the worst post-Civil War practices,” said Phi Nguyen, Director of Democracy at Dēmos. “In the years that followed the Civil War, state governments seeking to disempower the formerly enslaved community adopted unjustifiable policies to retain power. They enacted criminal statutes designed to target Black citizens and passed broad disenfranchisement provisions that revoked the voting rights of anyone convicted of these laws. Their actions ultimately disenfranchised vast swaths of the Black population. Hilgers may wish to be portrayed otherwise, but his recent efforts to disempower citizens place him in some of the worst company in our history.”

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