Advocates Push to Get Florida Ex-Felons the Right to Vote
Civil-rights advocates in Florida are pushing to put a fundamental democratic question on the ballot: Should people convicted of felonies be able to vote?
Florida bars an estimated 1.69 million people with felony records from voting unless they successfully petition the state to regain their rights. Its population of disenfranchised people with felony records accounts for more than a quarter of the 6.1 million nationally, according to the Sentencing Project, which advocates for criminal justice policy changes. Only Kentucky and Iowa currently maintain similar restrictions on voting.
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In Florida, felons must wait five to seven years after completing sentences to reapply for their civil rights, after which it takes another nine years on average to even have their petitions heard, according to the state office that oversees the process.
“The system we have in Florida is not working,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which has financially backed the ballot effort.
During the seven-year tenure of Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, regaining those rights has gotten harder. Roughly 2,900 people have regained their voting rights under the current governor, compared with 155,000 people under his predecessor, Charlie Crist.
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There is no guarantee the Florida measure will make next year’s ballot. To get there, the campaign needs 766,200 valid signatures from registered voters by Feb. 1 and must clear thresholds in half the congressional districts. So far, more than 950,000 signatures have been collected and submitted to county supervisors for review, according to the campaign. State records show that more than 490,000 signatures have been validated thus far.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/advocates-push-to-get-florida-ex-felons-the-right-to-vote-1512907201