Governor Tom Vilsack today (Tuesday) defended his decision to grant voting rights to felons who’ve completed their probation and parole. “We’re doing this for the right reasons because it’s the right thing to do,” Vilsack told statehouse reporters. “We join 44 other states (that) have done this.”Republican legislators have criticized the move. House Speaker Christopher Rants, a Republican from Sioux City, says Vilsack’s move means felons who’ve been released but have not paid their court fines or their victim restitution will be able to vote. Vilsack himself responded publicly to the charges for the first time, and cited Republican President George Bush’s actions. “President Bush when he was Governor of Texas signed a law similar to this,” Vilsack says. “As president, in his 2004 State of the Union address, he called America ‘a nation of second chances’ and he is right about that.” Other critics say the move was politically motivated to gain more Democrat voters. Vilsack read reporters an e-mail he received from a woman from Weaver, Iowa, who is married to an ex-felon.The woman thanked Vilsack for making a “dream come true” for her husband. Vilsack said he didn’t know if that man would register as a Democrat or as a Republican, but he will be “reconnected” to his community by the act of voting “and that’s important.”
