Senate GOP declines to pass felon voting rights amendment, citing a belief that Reynolds may plan to sign an executive order

For the second year in a row, Iowa Senate Republicans killed a proposed constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to felons, a key priority of Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds.

The Iowa Legislature adjourned Sunday afternoon without the Senate passing the measure. Lawmakers' failure to act on the proposal comes as Black Lives Matter activists have pressured Reynolds to sign an executive order immediately restoring voting rights to people with felony convictions once they have completed their sentences.

Senate Republicans said they declined to act because they believe Reynolds plans to sign such an order.

"Over the last couple days, it appeared the governor intended to sign an executive order regarding felon voting rights. It was the opinion of a number of my colleagues that an executive order eliminated the need for a constitutional amendment," said Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs, in a statement Sunday.

On Friday, Reynolds met with a group of six Des Moines Black Lives Matter activists to discuss their request that she sign an executive order immediately allowing people with felony convictions to vote once they have completed their sentences. Without an executive order, more than 60,000 people in Iowa will be barred from voting in November's general election.

The activists emerged from the meeting saying Reynolds was open — although noncommittal — to signing such an order. They said she plans to meet with activists again on Monday to show them a draft, and that signing it would also be contingent on discussions with lawmakers.

Reynolds' spokesperson, Pat Garrett, has refused to confirm the activists' account of that meeting.

The group kept up the pressure on Reynolds over the weekend with a protest and block party Saturday night at Terrace Hill, the governor's residence.

Civil rights groups like the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa have long called for Reynolds to sign such an executive order. They have been joined in recent weeks by Black Lives Matter activists and protesters, who have sought to put pressure on public officials in the weeks since George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer. Floyd's killing sparked protests around the country demanding drastic changes to policing and measures to achieve racial justice.

A 2016 report from the Sentencing Project found that nearly one in 10 African American adults in Iowa are barred from voting due to a felony conviction.

On Friday, Reynolds signed bipartisan legislation to ban most chokeholds by police, allow the Iowa Attorney General to investigate deaths caused by an officer, prevent officers from being hired in Iowa if they previously have been convicted of a felony, fired for misconduct or quit to avoid being fired for misconduct and require annual training for law enforcement on de-escalation techniques and implicit bias.

"To the thousands of Iowans who have taken to the streets calling for reforms to address inequities faced by people of color in our state, I want you to know that this is not the end of our work, it is just the beginning," she said Friday at the bill signing.

Reynolds began calling for a constitutional amendment in 2019 and has made it one of her top legislative priorities in each of the last two years. Last year, the House overwhelmingly passed the measure, but the Senate Judiciary Committee did not take it up for a vote, killing its chances for the year.

This year, the measure advanced through committee but was never called up for a vote before the full Senate.

Reynolds had tried to get Senate Republicans on board, signing legislation pushed by Republican senators this month that — if the amendment had passed — would have set conditions for which felons can automatically get their voting rights back, excluding those convicted of certain crimes, and would require all felons to fully pay victim restitution before they can vote.

The Senate's failure to pass the proposal restarts the process of amending Iowa's constitution and sets the clock back by two years.

Amending the Iowa Constitution requires a proposal to pass two consecutive general assemblies and win majority approval in a statewide vote. Without a Senate vote this year, the amendment will have to pass the Legislature in 2021 or 2022, and then again in 2023 or 2024, before it could be put before Iowans for a statewide vote.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

Your subscription makes our journalism possible. Subscribe today at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal.