A pair of state lawmakers are pushing to allow prisoners with felony convictions to vote — undoing a constitutional amendment approved decades ago.

If approved, it would set back the clock two decades to when voters backed the prisoner voting ban.

“We know that the Legislature made great strides in voting rights last session, but as Black and brown people continue to be disenfranchised in state prisons and houses of correction across the commonwealth, our work is really far from over,” state Sen. Liz Miranda told the Joint Committee on Election Laws during a hearing Thursday.

Miranda’s proposal, similar to another offered by state Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven, would undo a constitutional change proposed by then Acting Gov. Paul Cellucci in 1997 and approved by the voters in 2000 which removed the right for incarcerated felons to vote in Massachusetts elections. Cellucci, in 2001, would expand the rule to prohibit voting by felons serving time in presidential and municipal elections.

Before the change in 2000, the two lawmakers explained to the committee, it was routine for candidates and incumbents to visit prisoners in their districts, since the state had allowed them to vote from its constitutional founding until then. Now, Miranda said, those sort of interactions simply do not occur.

“The commonwealth is currently disenfranchising 4,982 people,” she said. “We have come to understand felony disenfranchisement’s role in exacerbating political and racial equality.”

According to Paul Craney, a spokesperson for the MassFiscal watchdog group, the change in the law made 20 years ago represents the will of the voters.

“(The) amendments to overturn 23 years of precedent and overturn the overwhelming will of the voters is incredibly harmful to our elections and the victims of crimes. This is an opportunity for commonsense lawmakers to publicly draw a very clear distinction with the fringe of the Legislature,” Craney said in a statement.

The joint committee has until April 26 to advance or kill the legislation.