On Friday, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, Chief U.S. Probation Officer for Minnesota Kito Bess and Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell announced a new voter registration drive for people who have been released from prison and are newly eligible to vote. (Glen Stubbe, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Minnesota leaders and advocates went to the U.S. District Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis on Friday to continue to spread the word to the formerly incarcerated that it's safe, legal and beneficial for them to sign up to vote.

"We're here trying to reach people who are newly eligible to vote and may or may not know it," Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said at a news conference outside the building.

An estimated 55,000 formerly incarcerated Minnesotans are now eligible to register and vote, thanks to a bill passed by the 2023 Legislature. Under the old law, felons had to complete their probation before they could vote, a process that could take decades. Now they can register and vote immediately upon release from incarceration.

The League of Women Voters staffed a table in the entryway of the courthouse to inform potential new voters. Informational tables have been placed throughout the state in courthouses and libraries in Bemidji, Duluth, Fergus Falls, Rochester and St. Paul.

"We're excited about the momentum, and getting the word out is really, really important," said Michelle Witte, executive director of the league, which is part of the Restore the Vote coalition that pushed for a change in the law.

Joining Simon and Witte at a news conference outside the courthouse were Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell and Kito Bess, chief probation officer for the U.S. District of Minnesota.

Bess quoted the late civil rights activist and U.S. Sen. John Lewis: "'We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us,'" Bess said, adding in his own words, "The time has come where you have an opportunity to share your voice."

With the new law on the books, education and combating misinformation will be crucial, Simon said. He wants it known that the Legislature made it easier — not harder — to register to vote. Minnesotans can sign up online.

"Voting is the most powerful tool we have to express ourselves as Americans," Simon said.

He and Schnell also emphasized how voting helps connect formerly incarcerated Minnesotans to their families and the community, reducing the likelihood they will reoffend.

Schnell said he's known offenders who were released and able to participate in their children's parent-teacher associations at school but couldn't vote. Now they can.

Simon also said he's confident that the new law will withstand a pending legal challenge in the courts. Earlier this year, the state Supreme Court said that voting rights for the formerly incarcerated were an issue to be decided by lawmakers.