florida felon voting rights amendment 2018

“We have got to be hopeful.”, “I’m going to come back and see you,” she told Frank resolutely. But in Florida, a major swing state where the 2000 presidential election was infamously decided by 537 votes, that could soon change, as voters heading to the polls on Tuesday decide whether to pass Amendment 4 to the state’s constitution, restoring voting rights to 1.4 million of the state’s 1.68 million felons — all those who have completed their sentences, with the exception of people convicted of murder or sex offenses. “I’ll get them to vote.”. Almost nobody objects to restoring their voting rights. “We got people with a DUI in ’97 who still can’t vote.”, “None of these politicians will ever get elected if they allow black people to vote. “There’s a practical side to this,” added Meade. For most of the morning, Anglin ended up in conversations about the broken justice system with others who, like herself, could not vote, but a couple of people told her they had already cast their ballots early — prompting high fives and hugs. “I see how people were out fighting for us to have the chance to vote, to participate,” the father of three said. Before Election Day, those hoping to regain their rights had to wait five years and undergo an arduous process with the Florida Clemency Board. But the process remained arbitrary and political. Another stint in prison came at 27 for a robbery charge. Where it remains in place today, felon disenfranchisement joins a number of other measures — such as voter ID laws and voter purging — that effectively keep hundreds of thousands of people from exercising their right to vote. They were voting for forgiveness.”. It’s because they don’t really have to do anything.”.

Meade, who became the voice of the restoration movement, traveled the state, spoke nationally and appealed to Congress and went to the United Nations to talk about what he called the disenfranchisement of Florida’s returning citizens. “It all started in the Jim Crow days,” Hailes added. But for the man who, years ago, started the campaign that ended up on the ballot as Amendment 4, the issue was less one of politics than of humanity. Florida voters on Tuesday approved Amendment 4, which says that most felons will automatically have their voting rights restored when they complete their sentences or go on probation. “I do what I can to get involved,” Thompson said, smiling. Joining is simple and doesn’t need to cost a lot: You can become a sustaining member for as little as $3 or $5 a month. If the amendment passed, he promised, he would register them himself. “It’s rural Florida, urban Florida, suburban Florida, the whole deal,” said Volz, who is white and a former Republican operative. Of half a dozen people she spoke to in the neighborhood, half said they couldn’t vote because of a felony. “What we accomplished was something special,” Meade said. Handing out campaign fliers on the streets of Orlando and gleefully talking about the politics of change was a late-in-life moment of awakening for Cecilia Thompson. That’s something beautiful.”. Because of prison time and his inability to gain reinstatement, he's missed out on three presidential elections. Wash has ministered to former gang members, prostitutes and others about his life and own time in prison for drug charges.

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