Former Sen. Lowen Kruse, who co-sponsored the 2005 bill with Lincoln Sen. DiAnna Schimek and has met with inmates in the prisons over many years, told the committee his disappointment with that bill is that so many felons don't know they can vote after two years.

He remembered a former felon he met going door-to-door during his campaign who told him, through tears, that he would give anything to be able to take his kids to see him vote so they would know he was like other fathers.

Shakur Abdullah, who was sentenced as a juvenile and released from prison after 40 years, and is still waiting to be able to vote for the first time, said his inability to vote makes him a second-class citizen, with a status of taxation without representation.

"When you think of this as a faceless issue, I want you to remember my face," he said.

Wayne told the committee voting rights of felons can no longer be a partisan issue.

"Today, 150 years later, we can no longer disenfranchise people who simply made a mistake in life. When they have completed their sentence they should be able to have one of the most precious things that many people have died for and to this day they are still fighting for,” he said.

No one testified in opposition to the bill.