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Mr. Evers, however, said his intention was the opposite — to reassure voters they could vote without fearing for their health. “Time and time again, the Guard has stepped up to help their neighbors, friends and communities, as they will be doing on Election Day,” he said in a statement.

Iowa restores voting rights to felons.

Gov. Kim Reynolds, Republican of Iowa, issued an executive order on Wednesday to restore voting rights to as many as 60,000 state residents with felony convictions, making Iowa the latest in a line of states that have reversed policies seen as disenfranchising minority voters.

Iowa had previously enforced one of the most restrictive voting policies in the country: Former felons’ only option for registering to vote was to petition the governor’s office individually.

The order, which comes on the heels of a similar move by Florida, was not Ms. Reynolds’s first choice. She had urged the state’s legislature, which is controlled by Republicans, to pass a constitutional amendment that would have automatically restored voting rights to felons once they had served their sentences.

But lawmakers resisted, and Ms. Reynolds, who had worked closely with civil rights leaders, opted for an executive order to allow eligible former offenders to register before the election this fall.

An estimated 10 percent of the state’s Black residents were deemed ineligible to vote under the previous policy, according to state estimates.

“Today we take a significant step forward in acknowledging the importance of redemption, second chances and the need to address inequalities in our justice system,” Ms. Reynolds said in a statement, adding that she would continue to press for an amendment to the state’s Constitution. “The right to vote is the cornerstone of society and the free republic in which we live. When someone serves their sentence, they should have their right to vote restored automatically.”