Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Voting rights restored to 1.4M felons
Desmond Meade spent years traveling to every corner of Florida gathering petition signatures to restore voting rights to former felons. On Tuesday, all he had to do to register to vote for the first time in decades was walk a few steps into the Orange County elections office.
“One hundred and fifty years of disenfranchisement, and this moment here marks the end of a system that excludes so many people for a lifetime,” Meade said, referring to the years after the Civil War when felons were first barred from voting during Reconstruction. “This is a moment for democracy.”
The right to vote was restored to more than 1.4 million former felons across the state Tuesday thanks to Amendment 4’s victory at the ballot box in November, leading to emotional scenes as tears flowed, confetti was thrown and U.S. flags were waved.
Despite concerns about Gov. Ron DeSantis’s comments last month that he wanted to wait to implement Amendment 4 until the Legislature convenes in March, advocates including the League of Women Voters and the ACLU of Florida declared that the measure was designed to be self-implementing and went into effect Tuesday no matter what the Legislature does.
“This is a historic moment,” said Melba Pearson, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. “Everyone who is eligible to vote as a result of Amendment 4 should register.”
Floridians with felony convictions who have completed “all terms of their sentence including parole or probation” will have their voting rights automatically restored. The amendment, though, does not apply to people convicted of murder or sexual offenses. Those offenders will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the Clemency Review Board.
County supervisors across the state had said they would begin registering people immediately.
In South Florida, elections supervisors in neighboring counties had very different reactions to the day’s events.
In Palm Beach County, Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher called Tuesday was a “historic” day, adding the state had “shamelessly” disenfranchised its residents by not allowing them to have their voting rights automatically restored.
“Today … will be memorialized in Florida history for allowing every citizen to have a vote,” she said.
Broward County’s elections office also accepted voter registration forms from people with felony convictions, but its newly installed director Pete Antonacci took a more measured tone on the day’s significance.
“It’s a regular day at the supervisor’s office,” he said.
From 8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m., only three people had signed up to vote, Antonacci said.
Antonacci was appointed by outgoing Republican Gov. Rick Scott to replace former Broward elections head Brenda Snipes, who was suspended from office amid allegations of incompetence during the 2018 recount.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the ACLU of Florida said there had not been any issues reported with registering former felons.
Rebecca Quinn, the assistant supervisor in Seminole County, said the office doesn’t ask people if they were there because of Amendment 4. But there had been a notable uptick in people coming in to register in person instead of online, she said, and a few people were taking pictures of family members registering.
The Lake County elections office also saw a busier than usual day, polls services director Bob Bridgeman said. Three registrants told staffers they were former fel-
ons signing up to vote.
Sheena Meade, a former Florida House candidate and Desmond’s wife, said many people didn’t even wait until offices opened in the morning to register, instead filling out the form online after midnight.
“At 12:01 a.m. I’m texting everybody, ‘Happy Returning Citizen Registration Day,’” Sheena Meade said. “Some people were texting us in the middle of the night.”
In Orlando, Desmond Meade was the first to fill out the form at the stroke of 8 a.m., laughing as he came to the box that requires a registrant to “affirm I am not a convicted felon, or if I am, that my right to vote has been restored.”
“That’s one box I don’t mind checking,” Meade said.
Afterward, following streams of confetti and photos with his family in front of the elections office sign, Meade talked about how things had changed since the days when he was a drug addict, leading to his convictions on drug and firearm charges in 2001.
“My addiction took me to the railroad tracks,” he said. “I was going to jump on the tracks, but the train didn’t come that day.”
He eventually got his law degree, he said, and began his push for Amendment 4 when he couldn’t vote for his wife in her own election.
“This is happening all across the state,” Meade said. “I know in Lee County, Hillsborough County, Bay County, so many people are walking in with friends and family and supporters. … This is a day of celebration. Any time more people can experience democracy, it’s a great day for everybody.”
For information on registering, go to your county’s elections office or register online at registertovoteflorida.gov.