Absolutely: Charlie Crist says they’ve paid debt to society

Ten years ago, our state was more fair to nonviolent exfelons than it is today.

In 2006, I remember the flood of phone calls and panicked voices telling me to not talk about restoring ex-felons’ rights. It was in response to a simple question from Associated Press reporter Brendan Farrington. I said I would be in favor of fixing the restoration process — which was unheard of from a Republican running for governor in Florida.

It’s a shame. Some people simply don’t want others to vote — a mentality closer to public opinion in 1868, more than 140 years ago, when the ban on ex-felons was put into the Florida Constitution.

In 2007, following in the footsteps of Gov. Reubin Askew’s attempts to fully implement automatic restoration of nonviolent civil rights, I attempted to end the shameful practice of delaying or outright ignoring requests for restoration of civil rights — mainly voting.

It’s the right thing to do because these men and women have paid their debt to society. And once that debt has been fully paid, we don’t have a moral right to add to it.

It’s about dignity, honor, and improving the odds of a safe, successful return to society. And it’s about second chances — who among us doesn’t need and deserve a second chance?

While full automation of nonviolent civil rights was too ambitious for the Executive Clemency Board to pass, we were able to come close, and with the support of CFO Alex Sink and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson we passed an improved, streamlined process.

At that time, we had an estimated 950,000 disenfranchised ex-offenders. Through the new process we pushed through, civil rights for 155,315 Floridians were restored in four years.

Sadly, in 2011, a new, all-Republican Cabinet reversed the progress we made and pushed our state backward once again. Since that reversal, fewer than 2,500 have had their rights restored, as tracked and reported by the Orlando Sentinel.

But this doesn’t have to stand. Just ask Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Along with Florida and Iowa, Virginia is the only other state where ex-felons permanently lose their voting rights. With a shared commitment to protecting civil rights and correcting wrongs in the criminal-justice system, McAuliffe recently surpassed our record in Florida for restoring voting rights by giving a second chance to 156,221 individuals in his state. I applaud his leadership on a moral issue that goes to the heart of our democracy — the right to vote.

Thankfully in Florida, there’s another way to get around politicians who refuse to do the right thing. The power to end discrimination and civic humiliation is in all of our hands, in the form of a constitutional amendment that could be on the ballot in 2018.

This amendment encapsulates the spirit of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, to advance our democracy, giving our fellow men and women a proper, earned second chance.

As Floridians for Fair Democracy, a nonpartisan effort to put this question on the ballot rightfully points out, restoring voting rights would be a modernization, a step forward, a pathway to redemption. And it is something I remain focused on now in the U.S. Congress, just as I was as Florida’s governor, because it’s the right thing to do. Sometimes doing the right thing isn’t the easiest choice. And, yes, it may be hard, but it’s not impossible. As I said in 2007, justice delayed is justice denied. And only we have the power to fix it.

Sometimes doing the right thing isn’t the easiest choice. And, yes, it may be hard, but it’s not impossible.