Florida Governor Heats Up Fight Over Felon Voting Rights

Cr: ACLU Florida

By: Matt Marshall

Baltimore — In 2018, Floridians showed vast popular support for expansive voting rights by passing Amendment Four, a ballot measure designed to reinstate the vote to felons who have served their time. Despite the will of Floridians, Governor DeSantis and Floridian Republicans have worked tirelessly to revoke that vote from as many former felons as possible. A recent Florida Supreme Court decision may have made their job easier, and it has received significant pushback from voting rights groups in Florida and around the country. 

A January 16th Florida Supreme Court advisory ruling approved of legislation that expanded the requirements around Amendment Four to include administrative fees surrounding completed sentencing, per the Associated Press. These fees include paying restitution and court fees, even if those fees were converted to a civil judgment.

This immediately drew nationwide attention, with figures such as former Presidential candidate and Senator Cory Booker condemning the legislation on twitter, “This is a poll tax.”

After the advisory ruling, Governor Ron DeSantis took to twitter to celebrate the decision, saying, “I am pleased that @FLCourts confirms that Amendment 4 requires fines, fees, & restitutions be paid.” He went on to call voting a “privilege”, drawing a line in the sand around voting rights contradicted by activists and the constitution alike. 

Floridians voted to enact Amendment Four by a wide margin, with approximately 5.1 million (64.55%) of Floridian voters opting for the Amendment to approximately 2.8 million (35.45%) voting against. In a contentious 2018 gubernatorial race, Republican candidate Ron DeSantis won by a margin of 4,076,186 (49.6%) to 4,043,723 (49.2%) votes.

Amendment four, amidst an increasingly partisan political landscape, managed to win broad appeal, even as this antagonistic gubernatorial race raged. Over a million Floridians cast their ballot both for Amendment Four and Ron DeSantis. Now, proponents say GOP legislators are attempting to dismantle the amendment. 

Amendment Four originally required former felons to satisfy three conditions to receive their voting rights: no murder convictions, no sex offenses, and the completion of sentence as ordered by a judge. The expansion of requirements to include restitutions and court fees will disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Americans for whom Floridians voted to receive the franchise.

According to Desmond Meade of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, a group that was at the forefront of passing Amendment Four, this expansion threatens to increase the amount disenfranchised by outstanding fees from 560,000 Floridians to 800,000 Floridians, a vast amount of citizens in a consistently politically contentious state. 

Despite the continued pushback against the impact of Amendment Four from Floridian Republicans, Meade remains optimistic. In a recent episode of the podcast “Pod Save America”, Meade discussed the impact of the amendment and ways in which Floridians and Americans across the country can fight against efforts to disenfranchise former felons impacted by the ballot initiative. Meade says, “We’re gonna let the litigators litigate…the legislators legislate, and we’re going to continue to embrace the spirit of Amendment Four.” His focus, he says, remains “keenly…on the people.” 

While courts are unlikely to solve this dispute before the 2020 elections, Meade points out several pathways for re-enfranchising those excluded by these expanded requirements.

First, he points out that courts can modify and/or remove financial obligations for felons, removing that barrier to voting. Second, judges can convert financial obligations into community service.

Meade seems particularly optimistic about this pathway, especially because, as community service, former felons can opt to volunteer to register voters, getting them involved in the political process on their way towards receiving the vote once again.

Finally, the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition has started a fund on their page to help pay fines and fees. An outcry, too, has come from activists and social media to have billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, both running for president, throw their financial weight behind paying the fines and fees of former felons. 

The debate over voting rights has a long history in American politics, especially centering around race and gender. Following the reconstruction era, poll taxes, literacy tests, and other restrictive measures were used by politicians to block Black Americans from receiving the right to vote.

Now a generation of drug laws targeting, primarily, Black men and laws that prevent former felons from voting combine to form a modern evolution of the restrictive voting laws of the past.

Meanwhile, Governor Ron DeSantis claims voting to be a “privilege,” despite the language surrounding the vote in the American constitution. Desmond Meade is clear-eyed. He acknowledges the oppressive power of restrictions around the vote, but, he says, “There’s always, I believe…silver linings in these dark clouds…our primary purpose is to engage as many of our fellow citizens as we can.”