www.desmoinesregister.com/…

The Des Moines Register is calling on Republican Governor Kim Reynolds to end Iowa’s disenfranchisement of felons for life. Iowa became the only state that does so after Kentucky’s new governor, Andy Beshear, signed an executive order that returned voting rights to 140,000 in the Bluegrass State.

She says she’s interested in restoring voting rights to felons. Yet during the 2½ years she has served as Iowa’s governor, she has yet to make it happen with an executive order. Reynolds has not dusted off the one former Gov. Tom Vilsack used to restore rights to an estimated 115,000 citizens — before former Gov. Terry Branstad rescinded it.

Iowa prides itself on being a bastion of democracy when it is the first state in selecting presidential candidates, but it is now the worst in the nation in denying the vote to anyone with a felony, regardless of how old the conviction may be.

There is a long backlog of voters asking for individual voting restoration as well as many errors in the database, according to the paper.