Ruling keeps clemency intact

Appeals court delays changes in ex-felons’ voting-rights system

TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s system of restoring voting rights to ex-felons remains intact, for now at least, after a federal appeals court Wednesday night delayed a judge’s ruling issued in February that had struck down the system.

The decision from the Atlantabased U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals prevented a late-night meeting of the Florida Clemency Board, which was called by Gov. Rick Scott to comply with the lower court’s deadline of today to adopt new voting rights restoration rules.

“We are glad that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed the lower court’s reckless ruling,” said Scott spokesman John Tupps. “Judges should interpret the law, not create it.’’

The ruling is only temporary until the underlying appeal is resolved, but the order indicates the state is likely to win.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker of Tallahassee struck down the system, which allows the board to grant or deny voting rights to ex-convicts for any reason, finding it was arbitrary and violated their constitutional rights.

But the appeals court found that “binding precedent holds that the Governor has broad discretion to grant and deny clemency, even when the applicable regime lacks any standards.”

Scott and the Cabinet were prepared to adopt new rules that would have allowed some ex-felons to have their rights restored after a long process, but the ruling negated the need for the meeting.

A draft of the rules to be discussed at the meeting would have kept the current five-year waiting period for ex-convicts to apply to get their voting rights restored.

But the ex-felons would not have to plead before the clemency board, made up of Scott and the Cabinet, after the application process.

Under the current system, felons must wait five years after their sentences end, then apply to the Clemency Board, which includes Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, to have their rights restored.

There is a backlog of more than 10,000 cases, and about 1.5 million exfelons in the state are eligible to seek the restoration of their voting rights.

Former Gov. Charlie Crist, along with two other Cabinet officials, changed the rights restoration process in 2007, allowing the parole commission to grant voting rights to non-violent felons without clemency hearings.

The change resulted in more than 100,000 people getting their rights to vote restored within one year.

Since Scott changed the

system in 2011, fewer than 3,000 former felons have gotten their rights back.

The case was brought by the Fair Elections Legal Network, a national voting rights group, on behalf of nine ex-felons seeking to vote.

A spokeswoman for FELN said the group had no comment.

At the same time, other groups pushing to reform the voting rights restoration system have gathered enough petitions to place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot.

The measure, which requires 60 percent of the vote to pass, will appear on the ballot as Amendment 4.

It would automatically restore voting rights to exfelons who have completed their sentences, including probation and parole.

Those convicted of murder or sex crimes would not be eligible.

Desmond Meade of Orlando, chairman of Floridians for a Fair Democracy, had said earlier that his group wants the appeals court to put the legal case on hold until voters decide.

“Through a grassroots movement, Floridians put Amendment 4 on the ballot to fix the current broken system and take these decisions out of the hands of politicians,” he said in a statement.

“The problem is that without Amendment 4, any fix still leaves this decision in the hands of politicians. And a person’s eligibility to vote should not be left up to politicians and election cycles.”

Since Scott changed the system in 2011, fewer than 3,000 ex-felons have gotten rights back.