This morning's state Supreme Court decision upholding the ban on felon voters raises the question of what happens to felons who registered to vote in the 16 months since a lower court said the law was unconstitutional.

Will they be grandfathered in and allowed to continue voting? Can those registrations now be cancelled? And is there any way to even know how many felons are covered by the law?

State officials don't yet know the answers. Assistant Secretary of State Steve Excell told me this morning that attorneys are still going through the pile of opinions in the Madison case. But he has already asked for advice on what to do about felons registered to vote.

As of now, the only felons that the state can accurately track -- and keep off the voter rolls -- are those still in custody of the Department of Corrections. Excell said:

"That's the only rock solid list that we know we can implement now in the short term. ... We have no way of finding the felons that are voting today."

The Secretary of State's office was in the process of working with other state agencies last year to find a way to keep better track of those felons who had yet to pay off all their financial obligations. But when King County Judge Michael Spearman ruled the felon law unconstitutional, the effort was put on hold. There's no way to know how many felons with outstanding financial obligations registered to vote since that March 2006 decision.

Excell said Secretary of State Sam Reed will restart efforts to track felons who are once again ineligible to vote.

Here's a statement from Reed and Attorney General Rob McKenna.