diff --git a/raft/raft.go b/raft/raft.go
index ba8758aa7..32070bb71 100644
--- a/raft/raft.go
+++ b/raft/raft.go
@@ -1050,11 +1050,15 @@ func stepFollower(r *raft, m pb.Message) {
 		m.To = r.lead
 		r.send(m)
 	case pb.MsgTimeoutNow:
-		r.logger.Infof("%x [term %d] received MsgTimeoutNow from %x and starts an election to get leadership.", r.id, r.Term, m.From)
-		// Leadership transfers never use pre-vote even if r.preVote is true; we
-		// know we are not recovering from a partition so there is no need for the
-		// extra round trip.
-		r.campaign(campaignTransfer)
+		if r.promotable() {
+			r.logger.Infof("%x [term %d] received MsgTimeoutNow from %x and starts an election to get leadership.", r.id, r.Term, m.From)
+			// Leadership transfers never use pre-vote even if r.preVote is true; we
+			// know we are not recovering from a partition so there is no need for the
+			// extra round trip.
+			r.campaign(campaignTransfer)
+		} else {
+			r.logger.Infof("%x received MsgTimeoutNow from %x but is not promotable", r.id, m.From)
+		}
 	case pb.MsgReadIndex:
 		if r.lead == None {
 			r.logger.Infof("%x no leader at term %d; dropping index reading msg", r.id, r.Term)
diff --git a/raft/raft_test.go b/raft/raft_test.go
index c059e2be6..99579d94f 100644
--- a/raft/raft_test.go
+++ b/raft/raft_test.go
@@ -2835,6 +2835,21 @@ func checkLeaderTransferState(t *testing.T, r *raft, state StateType, lead uint6
 	}
 }
 
+// TestTransferNonMember verifies that when a MsgTimeoutNow arrives at
+// a node that has been removed from the group, nothing happens.
+// (previously, if the node also got votes, it would panic as it
+// transitioned to StateLeader)
+func TestTransferNonMember(t *testing.T) {
+	r := newTestRaft(1, []uint64{2, 3, 4}, 5, 1, NewMemoryStorage())
+	r.Step(pb.Message{From: 2, To: 1, Type: pb.MsgTimeoutNow})
+
+	r.Step(pb.Message{From: 2, To: 1, Type: pb.MsgVoteResp})
+	r.Step(pb.Message{From: 3, To: 1, Type: pb.MsgVoteResp})
+	if r.state != StateFollower {
+		t.Fatalf("state is %s, want StateFollower", r.state)
+	}
+}
+
 func ents(terms ...uint64) *raft {
 	storage := NewMemoryStorage()
 	for i, term := range terms {