Daniel Nichanian for The Appeal:

Colorado and Nevada adopted new laws this week that will restore people’s voting rights as soon as they are released from incarceration, as opposed to doing so at later stages of the legal system (if ever).

These reforms deal a double blow to a system that excludes and marginalizes millions of U.S. citizens, disproportionately African American, across the country. They are the latest successes in a nationwidemovement to confront felony disenfranchisement. The movement has upended the voting rights debate and opened space for bolder reforms than we have come to expect, whether ones like Colorado and Nevada’s or ones that go further by targeting disenfranchisement altogether.
Prior to this week, just one state had passed a law to enfranchise people upon their release over the last decade (Maryland in 2016). Colorado and Nevada did this within a day of one another.