It’s official. Earlier today, a little over two weeks after the Maryland House voted to override Governor Larry Hogan’s veto of a bill that would automatically restore voting rights to non-violent ex-felons when they are released from prison, the State Senate did the same.

OK, it's official: the MD Senate has voted to override the Gov's veto, restoring voting rights for 40,000 ex-felons. — Zachary Roth (@zackroth) February 9, 2016

This is great news. As I wrote when the House voted to override the veto:

There is no evidence to show that felon disenfranchisement acts as a deterrent for crime; if anything, it alienates citizens from society and increases the chances of recidivism. What’s more, felon disenfranchisement has real and significant effects on the outcome of elections — effects far greater than those of voter ID laws — because felon disenfranchisement laws are and always have been designed to take a large number of (disproportionately low-income and minority) citizens and remove them from the electoral process entirely.

The override should take effect early next month, which means that the affected citizens will have their rights restored in time to vote in Maryland’s primary elections. The deadline to register to vote in the Maryland primary is April 5th.

Hogan is not pleased:

MD Gov Hogan says lawmakers who backed felon voting bill over his veto "decided to ignore reason and common sense." — Zachary Roth (@zackroth) February 9, 2016

But who’s really on the right side of “common sense” here? Governor Hogan had originally vetoed the legislation, which was part of a broader criminal justice reform package, because, as he argued, the state’s existing system of restoring rights to ex-felons once they had completed parole was enough ballot access for them. Under the current system, ex-felons have their rights restored eventually, but only after they’ve “transitioned” back into society. Democrats and voting rights advocates countered, arguing that if Maryland is going to automatically restore these rights, making ex-felons wait until their parole is up amounts to little more than an arbitrary delay. As Maryland Senate President Thomas Miller said to the Washington Post last month, “If they are citizens, they are entitled to vote.”

Seems simple enough to me.