SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- The remedy for keeping released felons from voting illegally in Minnesota may include speeding up the restoration of their voting rights.
Currently those individuals aren't permitted to vote until they have finished their supervised release period, which is Minnesota's term for parole.
But Governor Dayton's Election Integrity Task Force is exploring the idea of switching to the system used in North Dakota, where voting rights are restored upon release from incarceration.
"It's amazing how complex this all is," Joe Nunez, the co-chair of the task force, said. "Some felons are under jurisdiction of the Dept of Corrections, some report to county probation officers, still others report directly to the courts."
In Minnesota's 2008 general election at least 200 felons voted statewide before they were eligible, which is a felony in and of itself. That was statistically small considering 2.7 million people took part in that election, but it gave critics of the system an opening to push for tighter controls.
The Task Force, in its first interim report to Governor Dayton, recommended many practical steps such as giving released felons better notice that their voting rights have been restored.
The group also suggested equipping the Dept of Corrections with the means to transmit current data about a released inmate's eligibility status to election officials so they can flag those who are barred from voting.
But those who support a North Dakota style system say it would be simpler to enforce, and less confusing for those living with criminal records and elections officials alike.
"I think most people don't realize the majority of people who are not able to vote because of felony conviction have never been to prison, and they live in the community, pay taxes and have families," Sarah Walker of the Second Chance Coalition told KARE Tuesday.
The annual Second Chances rally at the Capitol brought into sharp focus, if only for a day, the trouble people with criminal records have finding jobs and housing. The number one priority of the coalition is to "ban the box," or prohibit employers from asking about a criminal record until a candidate has reached the interview stage.
But the quest to reclaim voting rights is also a growing issue in the movement to help convicted felons rebuild their lives.
"We don't commit more crimes than we used to," Walker explained. "We just punish people more often than we used to. The number of people who are disenfranchised has grown by over 400 percent in the last 20 years."
Cory Rucker of Saint Paul, was among those who attended Tuesday's rally at the Capitol. He voted for the first time in 2008, after a long wait.
"I had to check with the local county to make sure I was able to vote," Rucker recalled. "I went to the web site and it said if you're not under supervision currently, and everything has expired then you're able to vote."
Rucker was originally sentenced to four years in prison for aggravated robbery. He spent two years behind bars before being set free, but remained on supervised release another 8 years and therefore couldn't vote.
Since then he's earned a college degree and several other professional certificates, and has stayed out of trouble. Rucker said he's unsure whether everyone who walks out of a prison deserved to vote immediately, but he said those who prove they're responsible shouldn't have to wait so long for to win back that right.
"A person could go be a law-abiding citizen, get an education, have a home, be paying taxes, be a good neighbor, and yet he can't vote because of a mistake he made when he was 18 years old, which my case."
But the man who has intensively tracked felony voting in Minnesota since 2008, Dan McGrath of Minnesota Majority, doesn't want to see the law change.
"A lot of people that are convicted of felony crimes never serve a day in jail," McGrath told KARE.
"So deprivation of their rights is how we punish them. So if you take away this deprivation of rights, what is the punishment then? Are felons just to go scot free with no punishment whatsoever?"
McGrath has been the primary proponent of establishing a Voter Photo ID system in Minnesota. After the bill was vetoed by Governor Dayton in 2011, supporters at the Capitol are now intent on sending the question directly to the voters as a constitutional amendment.
The AARP, League of Women Voters, Common Cause and other groups are opposed to the idea, warning that it will disenfranchise thousands of elderly persons and other highly mobile segments of the population that don't update their drivers licenses often.
McGrath concedes Minnesota Majority didn't prove widespread double voting or voter impersonation at the polls. And the felon voters didn't use fake ID to vote, or pretend to be other people.
But the revelation of the felon voters helped McGrath win a public relations battle, and convince the public of the need for photo ID in the polling place. Currently that ID is only required at the time of registration.
And when it comes to relaxing the voting restrictions for released felons in Minnesota McGrath is firmly opposed.
"I think letting felons vote before they're finished paying their debt to society is a bad idea."
(Copyright 2012 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)