Candidates sparred over laws to restore the right to vote to former prisoners, and attacked the Voting Rights Act.

Today, Gov. Brian Sandoval ignored the bipartisan will of Nevada's elected representatives and vetoed A.B. 301, walking away from a significant opportunity to expand voting rights and realize justice in Nevada. The bill aimed to make Nevada's voting rights restoration process more efficient and help the state move closer to a fair and fully functioning democratic system.

Last night, in a decisive, bipartisan victory for voting rights, the Nevada Assembly’s Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections unanimously voted Assembly Bill 301 to the floor of the House.  The bill will streamline and simplify Nevada’s unbelievably complicated patchwork of laws governing the restoration of the right to vote after a criminal conviction, and it automatically restores voting rights to anyone who honorably completes a felony sentence of imprisonment, probation, or parole.

The Florida constitution denies the right to vote for life to anyone with a felony conviction, unless he is granted clemency by the governor. Essentially it gives the governor, an elected official, the power to decide who will (or won't) be allowed to vote in the next election.