Thousands of ex-felons in Florida are voting for the first times in their lives
“This is a season to celebrate. This nationwas founded on second chances. When you add returning citizens to the voting roll, they are becoming critical voices to be listened to.”
— DesmondMeade, executive director of theFlorida Rights Restoration Coalition
On an early December morning 12 years ago, an unsuspecting man got out of his car in the driveway of his Delray Beach home when a young man named Robert Edwards approached him with a gun and robbed him of his cellphone and cash.
Afewhourslater, Edwards and two accomplices rob bed a second man in Boynton Beach. This time, theywere arrested after a chase that endedinacrash, accordingto court records, and Edwards was sentenced to a decade in prison.
Last weekend, Edwards — now a convicted ex-felon who completed his sentence — cast a vote for president for the first time, his right to do so restored in 2018 when Florida voters approved Amendment4.
“I used to feel helpless and I felt voiceless,” said Edwards, who now works with the Palm Beach County chapter of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition.
While in prison for his robbery convictions, Edwards, now 31, said he learned about politics and civicduty. Itmadehimeager to vote.
This is the first presidential election since Florida restored voting rights to people with felony convictions. It took months of battling in the legislature andcourtsforex-felonstobe handedballots, andnowthey can only do so after paying their outstanding court costs, feesand fines.
William Freeman paid off his fees with help from the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, by performing community service and getting on a payment plan in BrevardCounty.
Freeman battled with drug addictions for years, and his lengthy criminal history dates back to the early 1990s. He’s been charged with domestic violence and burglary. He served multiple stints in state prison for grand theft and attempted burglary. Hiscrimesspanned fromMartin to Palm Beach to Brevardcounties.
Released from prison last December, Freeman says he registered to vote on Juneteenth, a holiday celebrated for years by African Americans to commemorate the day slaveswere told theywere free in Galveston, Texas, in 1865. He and and his fianceé dropped off their ballots at City Hall inWest Palm Beach last week at an event with other ex-felons who are now allowed to vote.
“It was history making,” Freemansaid.
The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, a nonprofit organization, has paid off $25 million dollars in court fees and fines for ex-felons so they’d be able to vote. The impact of the newwave of voters is significant in a crucial swing state where elections are decided by tiny margins. This year’s race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden is a virtual tie in polling averages.
The coalition estimates that 1.4 million ex-felons are eligible to vote. About 67,000 of them have registered to vote since Amendment 4 passed and 144,000 were already registered because they received clemency from previous governors, according toDesmond Meade, executive director of the coalition.
People convicted of sexual offenses or murder were excluded from the amendment.
“This is a season to celebrate,” Meade said. “This nation was founded on second chances. When you add returning citizens to the voting roll, they are becoming critical voices to be listened to.”
Meade said the divisive atmosphere of the county, the bitter election season and the deadly COVID-19 pandemic have motivated the ex-felons to participate in the election.
“Let your vote be heard,” said Tracey Williams, 48, who cast his first vote this year.
Williams was sentenced to prison in the 1990s for a drug-related conviction and served probation for a 2001 batterycase. Hewascharged with assaulting a pregnant woman, but those charges were later dropped.
Despite being free, he hasn’t been free to vote until this year. As he walked into the voting booth last week, he say she remembered those who marched to grant voting rights to all Americans.
“When things aren’ t going the way you need them or your job is at stake, or you can’t feed your family, you can’ t blame anyone but yourself ,” Williams said.