You can help ex-felons vote again, even though Florida Republicans won’t | Editorial

Florida’s shameful fight to kill Amendment 4 is back on.

On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis had state lawyers appear in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to ask it to set aside a ruling that allowed some felons to regain access to the ballot box despite owing fines and other legal debts.

The governor and other Florida Republican lawmakers are vehement that only felons who have completed all conditions of their sentences should be allowed to vote. Period.

Attorneys for the state told the three-judge panel that Florida believes to regain the right to vote, felons must not only serve their time but also pay all fines and other legal financial obligations. And therein lies the rub that has plagued this amendment since voters passed it in 2018. Florida’s Republican lawmakers and governor are intent on weakening it as much as possible — and have, for the most part, succeeded.

Here’s a recap of Amendment 4’s short, but tortured, history:

In 2018, fair-minded Floridians of both parties were willing to share the franchise.

With 65 percent approval, the electorate showed its support for second chances, even for women and men who had lost the right to vote by reason of a felony conviction. Florida is one of a handful of states that impose lifetime voting bans. It’s a civics death penalty, and it falls especially heavily on minorities and women in a dysfunctional justice system that routinely imposes draconian punishments on nonviolent offenders

The Voting Rights Restoration for Felons Initiative (Amendment 4), was brought to the ballot by way of a citizen initiative, More than 750,000 voters petitioned to place the issue before the full electorate. Their intent was to extricate Florida from that short and embarrassing list of states and to help 1.4 million Floridians trying to make their way back to civil society by giving them access to the polls. Like most citizen initiatives in Florida, it followed years of lawmakers ignoring the issue, refusing to consider peer-reviewed research and the experience of other states, all of which show that restoring voting rights helps facilitate a successful transition from prison to a productive life.

But, like Gov. Rick Scott before him, Gov. Ron DeSantis, along with Republican lawmakers, who dominate both the state House and Senate, feared an influx of potential voters they didn’t know and couldn’t control. Amendment 4 was dead to them on the night it passed. Paying lip service to their oaths to faithfully execute the will of the people, they proceeded to throw up roadblocks and barricades between ex-prisoners and local voter-registration officials. Their methods are less violent than those used by Florida’s leaders in the Jim Crow era, but the effect is the same.

The war on Amendment 4 began in earnest last spring when the Legislature passed, and DeSantis signed, SB 7066 requiring that voter-registration officials receive proof that ex-convicts have paid all fines, fees and restitution as a condition of issuing them a voter ID. The law allows indigent offenders to have fines waived or reduced. Opponents sued.

As SB 7066 is under challenge in federal court, DeSantis is hoping for better results at the appeals-court level, where the judges “listened skeptically” to the state’s case, according to the AP.

DeSantis opened up a second front in the Supreme Court of Florida seeking an advisory opinion endorsing his crabbed interpretation of Amendment 4. Two weeks ago, to no one’s surprise, the court’s five Republican appointees gave it to him, after which he tweeted:

“I am pleased that @FLCourts confirms that Amendment 4 requires fines, fees & restitution be paid to victims before their voting rights may be restored. Voting is a privilege that should not be taken lightly, and I am obligated to faithfully implement Amendment 4 as it is defined.”

DeSantis was quickly forced to admit that in America, voting is a right, not a privilege. He blamed, but did not name, members of his staff for the troublesome tweet.

It’s unclear when the appeals panel will rule, but let’s hope it sides with the wish of Florida voters.

This court’s answer to that question will have far-reaching effects, as it will determine whether the state must comply with the court’s injunction in upcoming elections of national, state and local significance in 2020, Florida’s brief says.

Gerrymandered districts and unlimited supplies of dark money have made it possible for Republican governors and legislators to ignore with impunity past citizen-initiated amendments designed to protect precious resources like the environment and public education from predators determined to destroy, for profit, these foundations of a healthy society.

Miraculously, Floridians refuse to be discouraged. The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition has created a special fund, wegotthevote.org/finesandfees, which it says will be used exclusively to pay off fines and fees for Amendment 4’s intended beneficiaries. Floridians have already donated hundreds of thousands of dollars.

That’s a pittance compared to the public funds lawmakers spend repudiating their constituents’ votes. But it is a large and clear demonstration of the grace and generosity of spirit that is so lacking in the state Capitol.

This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 5:00 AM.