Coalition announces $7 million to help Miami ex-felons pay fines to be able to vote again

A prominent Florida grassroots organization says it is donating $7 million to help pay court fines and fees for former Miami-Dade felons looking to restore their voting rights.

The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which says it has received over $20 million in donations to help restore the civil rights of people who have served their sentences, made the announcement Friday outside the Miami-Dade criminal courthouse. Leaders were flanked by the county’s top prosecutor and a high-level official from the Public Defender’s Office.

said the coalition’s executive director, Desmond Meade. “It’s beautiful that grassroots organizations are working in collaboration with government institutions.”

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said the money will be used to help as many as 8,000 former felons in the ensuing months to pay off fines and fees associated with their sentences, which will allow them to restore their right to vote under Amendment 4.

“They don’t re-offend nearly as much as those who have been ostracized from our community,” Fernandez Rundle said.

The announcement came as the group, along with other organizations, make the final push to register voters ahead of the heated November presidential election. Monday marks the final day for potential voters to register before the election.

Florida voters in November 2018 overwhelmingly approved Amendment 4, which broadly restores the rights to former felons who completed their sentences. But the initiative has been mired in legal battles since the Florida Legislature passed a law requiring felons to pay “legal financial obligations” — fees, fines, costs and restitution — associated with their convictions to be eligible to vote.

Critics decried the law as a “poll tax” that subverted the will of the voters and disenfranchised voters, particularly minorities who often vote Democrat. Florida is a political battleground state, and an influx of minority voters could help oust President Donald Trump from office.

The movement to restore voting rights suffered a blow earlier this month when a federal appeals court overturned a judge’s ruling that people with felony convictions don’t have to pay off all court fees and fines before voting.

Over the past year, voting-rights advocates have been involved in extensive efforts to help ex-felons restore their voting rights.

Last November, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, the Public Defenders Office and the courts created a special docket to help expedite the restoration of rights. Singer John Legend, who has been a high-profile proponent of helping former felons restore their voting rights, attended the first court session.

Last month, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg kicked in $16 million toward the coalitions efforts to pay off fines and fees keeping many former felons from voting. The move immediately spurred Florida Republican elected officials to call for investigations, claiming Bloomberg might be “breaking the law by giving direct cash for voters.”

Officials said the $7 million being allocated to Miami-Dade will help ease the budget crunch in running the criminal-justice system.

Much of the fines and fees will go toward operating justice-system agencies, as well as funds for law enforcement and victims of crimes. Because of lost revenue stemming from the COVID-19 crisis, the Miami-Dade clerk of courts office projects it is operating with a budget shortfall of nearly $6 million this year.

“What you’re seeing is people working around a broken system,” said Neil Volz, the coalitions’ deputy director.

Still, the coalition acknowledged that the system at its core needs reform, despite the donations. Meade, the executive director, said Florida lawmakers need to revamp a system that forces courts to rely on fines from “people too poor to pay.”

“Our Legislature passed the buck to the courts to fund itself,” Meade said.

This story was originally published October 2, 2020 at 5:43 PM.