After the U.S. Civil War, white supremacists used felony disenfranchisement to suppress the Black vote. Even now, restoring rights has hit a roadblock.
So, no, I didn’t read it. But from that quick blurb, that’s what happened in Florida. Voters voted to return voting rights to felons after their sentence was complete. The Republican run Florida government overruled what the people voted for and kept ex-felons from voting.
(Based on my last understanding of about 2 or 3 years ago when this happened.)
No, this is different. They still haven’t voted on it. The state House has voted to remove it twice, but it has failed in the state Senate (not even going to a vote, because the chair won’t take it out of committee).
In FL, the people voted for it, but the government implemented it with almost impossible-to-bypass rules. Anyone convicted of a crime must pay all fines/fees before they are allowed to vote, but there is nowhere (no office, no website) that will tell you what you owe or how to pay it. And if you try to vote when you owe something, that’s a crime. So a person who was in prison for a few years will have some fees racked up but have no way to know what they owe or how to pay it. If they try to vote, they are committing another crime.
So, no, I didn’t read it. But from that quick blurb, that’s what happened in Florida. Voters voted to return voting rights to felons after their sentence was complete. The Republican run Florida government overruled what the people voted for and kept ex-felons from voting.
(Based on my last understanding of about 2 or 3 years ago when this happened.)
No, this is different. They still haven’t voted on it. The state House has voted to remove it twice, but it has failed in the state Senate (not even going to a vote, because the chair won’t take it out of committee).
In FL, the people voted for it, but the government implemented it with almost impossible-to-bypass rules. Anyone convicted of a crime must pay all fines/fees before they are allowed to vote, but there is nowhere (no office, no website) that will tell you what you owe or how to pay it. And if you try to vote when you owe something, that’s a crime. So a person who was in prison for a few years will have some fees racked up but have no way to know what they owe or how to pay it. If they try to vote, they are committing another crime.
Thank you for the extra information! (Not sarcasm)