Minnesota court upholds Walz-backed law restoring felons' right to vote

(This Aug. 7 story has been corrected to show that Doug Seaton is the founder of the Upper Midwest Law Center, not the Minnesota Voters Alliance, in paragraph 3)

By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) - The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a law signed last year by Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, that restores the right to vote for felons who have completed their prison terms.

The court's unanimous ruling did not address the merits of the law, instead finding that the conservative group that had challenged the law, the Minnesota Voters Alliance, did not have the legal standing to do so.

In a statement, Doug Seaton, the president and founder of the Upper Midwest Law Center, which represented the alliance in court, said the decision "sidesteps the necessary constitutional scrutiny" of the law.

Walz, a two-term governor, was named the running mate for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Tuesday. The two were traveling to Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday during their first campaign swing as a White House ticket.

The law in question allows felons to vote after they have been released from prison, even if they remain on parole or probation. Incarcerated felons are not permitted to cast ballots in Minnesota.

The campaign of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized Walz on Tuesday for supporting the law, even though Trump himself was convicted of 34 felonies in New York this year for falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star.

Trump lives and votes in Florida, which defers to the jurisdiction where a conviction occurred when determining whether a felon can vote. Under New York law, similar to Minnesota, convicted felons such as Trump are permitted to vote unless they are incarcerated at the time of the election.

Trump has maintained his innocence and claimed without evidence that the New York case is part of a Democratic conspiracy against him.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax in Princeton, New Jersey; Editing by Deepa Babington and Matthew Lewis)