Cheers as ex-felons regain voting rights
MIAMI — One by one, they came before the judge in Miami, confident that in a few moments they would get a precious document clearing the way for them to get the right to vote.
The signed court order confirmed that, for the purposes of voter registration, they did not owe any court fines, fees or costs from their past felony convictions. The 18 people on the docket, some of them previously disenfranchised for decades, were clearing the final hurdle imposed by the state of Florida to restore their voting eligibility.
The packed courtroom burst into applause when Judge Nushin G. Sayfie told Carmen Brown, the first person called to the lectern, that she was granting her motion. Brown, 64, had served time for multiple felony convictions, including armed robbery with a deadly weapon. She put her hands to her mouth as tears welled in her eyes.
“Thank you so much,” she said through sniffles. “Thank you, your honor.”
A year ago, Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure known as Amendment 4, restoring the voting rights of up to 1.5 million people with felony records. But earlier this year, the Republican-controlled State Legislature imposed restrictions requiring former felons to first pay back outstanding legal financial obligations. In some cases, those amount to tens of thousands of dollars.
Several Florida counties have taken steps to create “rocket dockets” to speed petitions for fee relief through the court system, enabling former felons to obtain certification that they have no pending financial penalties.
The restrictions imposed by the Legislature were challenged in court, and a federal judge decided last month to temporarily block the law, at least for the 17 plaintiffs in the lawsuit who said they could not afford to pay their legal debts. But who is protected by the injunction and for how long remains unclear.
Separately, the Florida Supreme Court held oral arguments this week on a request by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, for an advisory opinion clarifying the scope of Amendment 4 ahead of the 2020 elections. Amendment 4 does not restore voting rights to people convicted of murder or felony sex offenses.
In the meantime, a handful of elected Democratic state attorneys in some of the state’s biggest counties have tried to find ways to make it easier for people with felony convictions to become eligible to vote under the existing restrictions.
African Americans in the state have been disproportionately disenfranchised, and some Democrats see the potential to register thousands of new voters who might lean their way in Florida’s tight elections.
County prosectors’ efforts have received praise from civil rights groups and Amendment 4 proponents, who see support from local officials as crucial to getting former felons back onto the voter rolls.
But the local approach also seems likely to result in a patchwork system where a person with a felony record in one county may have a much different path to clearing their legal debts than a person in another county.
Andrew Warren, the state attorney in Hillsborough County, where Tampa is, said that his ability to put a procedure in place for ex-felons to follow has been complicated by the ongoing challenges to the law and its restrictions, which have created a moving target.
“It’s really just distinguishing between people who have not paid and people who are unable to pay,” Warren said. “If you’re unable to pay and you’ve otherwise completed the terms of your sentence, we’re creating a judicial process to check that. There’s a lack of infrastructure to check these things.”