Minnesota Gov Tim Walz's support for allowing felons to vote is a 'thorny issue' complicated by different laws in different states, experts say
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Vice President Harris, the 2024 Democrat nominee, and running mate Tim Walz, both of whom have been criticized for leftist crime policies, have both expressed support for expanding voting rights for serious criminals.
As Minnesota governor, Walz expanded voting rights for felons last year, removing the requirement that they finish out terms of parole or other post-release supervision and allowing them to vote after getting out of prison. During her failed 2020 bid for the presidency, Harris raised the possibility of going even further: allowing felons to vote from behind bars.
After signing the Minnesota law in 2023, Walz said the bill would allow 55,000 former prisoners, all of them convicted of serious crimes, to vote.
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Democrat presidential candidate Vice President Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are shown during a campaign event at Girard College in Philadelphia on Aug. 6, 2024. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
There are at least 20 other states with similar rules, controlled by both sides of the political spectrum, according to the Justice Department.
Supporters of those laws have noted that policies like that are what will allow former President Trump to vote in the upcoming election after his conviction at the end of a high-profile New York fraud trial.
Many other states, however, don't return voting rights until after the completion of post-release supervision, such as parole or probation.
On Wednesday, the state's Supreme Court upheld the law after a nonprofit group sued to have it overturned, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats' 2024 vice presidential candidate, is pictured in a 1995 booking photo after a DUI arrest in Dawes County, Nebraska. (Dawes County Sheriff's Office)
Allowing inmates to vote from behind bars would take things a step further.
Currently, the only states that allow imprisoned felons to vote are Maine and Vermont, according to the Justice Department. Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., also allow it.
When asked if felons should be allowed to vote from prison during a CNN-hosted town hall on the campaign trail in 2019, Harris said, "I think we should have that conversation."
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Clarifying her remarks later, she called it a "complex issue" and avoided giving a yes or no answer. Extreme crimes, however, deserve "serious consequences," she said.
One inmate in Harris' home state of California – a convicted serial killer serving life without parole – welcomed the idea.
"I agree, the voting rights would be helpful in passing restorative justice measures," prisoner Dana Gray told Fox News Digital. "I'm sure they have found a way to gerrymander voting districts using a fixed inmate population."
Inmates walk in a line at San Quentin State Prison in California. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg/File)
But experts worry that allowing prisoners to vote could go too far.
"I believe there has to be consequences for breaking the law," said John Kelly, the president of STALK Inc. and a psychoanalyst who interviews people behind bars – including multiple serial killers. "If there are no consequences, why would a person stop?"
In California, voters in 2020 eliminated the requirement that felons finish their parole before they regained their voting rights. A newer push, however, would let them vote while behind bars.
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who now runs a Los Angeles-based private practice, said the debate is "a thorny political issue" across much of the country.
"Further complicating the issue is the fact that what may be a felony in one state is a misdemeanor in another, and certain state laws that allow felonies to be reduced to misdemeanors after the successful completion of probation or parole," he told Fox News Digital. "As a former prosecutor, I believe that certain types of felons should never be allowed to vote or possess a firearm."
Similarly, green card holders convicted of the most heinous crimes should face deportation, even if they've lived in the U.S. for most of their lives, he added.
"People convicted of aggravated felonies, crimes of violence and certain sex crimes should forfeit rights enjoyed by law-abiding citizens," he said. "There is a public policy argument in favor of rehabilitation and against disenfranchisement, but the worst of the worst offenders should lose their right to vote."
Neither the White House nor Harris' campaign responded to requests for comment.
The Trump campaign ripped into the Minnesota measure in a statement after Harris named Walz as her running mate Tuesday.
"It’s no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate – Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State," campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital. "While Walz pretends to support Americans in the Heartland, when the cameras are off, he believes that rural America is ‘mostly cows and rocks’. From proposing his own carbon-free agenda, to suggesting stricter emission standards for gas-powered cars, and embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide."
Fox News' Brooke Singman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
