A constitutional amendment to restore Iowa felons’ voting rights failed to make it out of the Iowa Senate this legislative session, though Governor Kim Reynolds may sign an executive order before the November election.

District 24 Senator Jerry Behn of Boone says the Iowa Constitution currently prohibits felons from voting in any elections. He points out the Legislature was working on both a constitutional amendment to change that, as well as a bill that would have spelled out the process of doing that. The House passed the amendment earlier this session, but the Senate failed to pass it before adjourning for the year. Behn explains why the Senate didn’t take up the measure.

“There was some disagreement (of) what was going to be the mechanism that was going to take care of that: whether that was done through the constitutional amendment, or whether that was going to have to be a law that the Senate passed. In the last few days there we just didn’t get it worked out.”

Behn notes Governor Reynolds can also sign an executive order restoring voting rights for felons. He talks about what he would support: either a constitutional amendment or an executive order.

“I would prefer to do a legislative change overall. I think that provides more consistency, more continuity because as it is now whenever a governor comes in that individual governor can make the decision. Everybody would know the path that they needed to take and what they needed to do to get their voting rights back.”

Behn adds, currently a felon who has served their sentence can apply to the governor’s office to have their voting rights restored on a case-by-case basis.