LINCOLN- Hundreds of eligible voters may have been mistakenly told that they can’t participate in the 2020 election because of problems with the handling of a Nebraska law requiring a two-year waiting period to restore felons’ voting rights.

At least 51 Nebraskans eligible and registered to vote received county letters saying they were ineligible to vote, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen told the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska.

Nebraska’s county election officials sent letters in recent years to about 6,000 felons suggesting that they were ineligible to vote based on the law. ACLU Nebraska reviewed half of those cases individually. The ACLU flagged problems in nearly 300 of the cases and asked the state to review them. Some people were excluded for misdemeanors, instead of felonies. Others were booted from probation and excluded, a reason not meant by the law to keep someone from voting.

“It’s a perfect storm of confusion and errors in the system,” ACLU of Nebraska Executive Director Danielle Conrad said of problems with calculating the two-year waiting period required for felons after they complete their sentences. “Unfortunately, we don’t know the impact that that perfect storm may have.”

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