State’s memo won’t lead to a purge of felons from voter rolls, election supervisors say
TALLAHASSEE — No ex-felons suspected of still owing fines or fees will be removed from voter rolls prior to the Nov. 3 election, county elections officials said Friday, despite a memo from the state this week telling them some of those voters could be ineligible.
Florida Division of Elections director Maria Mathews sent an email, first reported by Politico, to supervisors of elections on Tuesday stating that “you will begin to see … files of potentially ineligible registered voters who are convicted felons, those whose potential ineligibility is based on not having satisfied the legal financial obligations of their sentence.”
But election supervisors in Central and South Florida said it was unlikely to change their operations or affect the vote in the final weeks before the vote.
First, local election offices must receive specific information about a voter, said Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles. Then, they must notify the voter and give that person 30 days to pay the outstanding fines or dispute the allegation of ineligibility.
“No action will be taken on any voter for at least 30 days after we get notified of anything from the state, which will obviously put that date after the election,” said Nick Shannin, general counsel for Cowles’ office.
Broward County Supervisor of Elections Pete Antonacci said he didn’t pay much mind to the email because it seemed a return to the normal process of culling voter logs.
“That’s routine. It’s a routine process that occurred before. … Now we’re back to the regular order,” Antonacci said. “There’s no there there. It’s going to how things have always been, where you get the routine report.”
In Palm Beach County, Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link said she hasn’t received a list of names from the state yet and no one has been removed from the voter rolls.
“We are looking at it and what that means for Palm Beach County,” she said. We at this point have done nothing like that. ... At this point, we have not done any removal.”
Still, the memo comes less than three weeks before election day amid a heated presidential battle where the outcome in Florida could tip the balance.
Joe Biden’s campaign sees it as a way to suppress voters. The Division of Elections is overseen by a department run by Secretary of State Laurel Lee, an appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican ally of President Trump.
“Plain and simple: this is voter suppression,” Biden spokeswoman Carlie Waibel said in a released statement. “For the past two years, we’ve seen Florida Republicans do everything in their power to defy the will of the overwhelming majority of Florida voters who cast their ballot in favor of Amendment 4. And here they go again.”
Shannin also downplayed any threat of a lawsuit arising from the memo. Anyone on the rolls now will have their vote counted if they cast one, he said.
“We’ve had those types of challenges before, and they never work,” Shannin said. “It’s simply impossible to go backwards and try to argue that people voted who should’ve otherwise been ineligible.
“The reality is until they are formally declared to be ineligible, they’re not. Those votes are valid.”
A spokesman for the Department of State did not return emailed questions sent Friday A DeSantis spokesman did not return a text message seeking comment.
In her memo, Mathews cited the 6-4 decision from the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals last month upholding the state law requiring felons to pay all outstanding fines and fees related to their sentence before their right to vote is restored.
The law, passed by Republicans, defended by the DeSantis’ administration in court and opposed vehemently by Democrats, installed the framework for Amendment 4, which was intended to automatically restore the right to vote for all ex-felons who completed their sentence, except for those convicted of murder or sex crimes were excluded.
Although supporters of the law initially said fines and fees would be included under “all terms of sentence” — the phrase contained in Amendment 4 — Democrats and advocates for the measure decried the GOP move to require those payments be made before voting rights are restored. A different version of the bill passed in 2019 would have allowed felons to convert the payments to civil liens, allowing them to vote if they were unable to afford the fines, but the stricter version passed.