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A law requiring felons to pay all fines, fees and restitution before gaining the right to vote is expected to keep more than 770,000 from casting ballots.
before the November election, Betty Riddle said she will do what she does most Saturdays – visit neighborhoods in her Sarasota hometown, urging felons like her to get on Florida voter rolls.“I’m mad as hell,” said Riddle, 63, who had been barred from voting after being convicted of assault at age 17.
When Floridians in 2018 overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment aimed at restoring voting rights to 1.4 million Florida felons, the prohibition that began in the 19th century appeared over. Riddle quickly registered to vote and cast a ballot for the first time in Florida’s March presidential primary. But when a federal appeals court in September upheld a law approved last year by the Republican-led Legislature – which said that any fines or restitution need to be paid before a felon has completely satisfied his or her sentence – the vast majority of an estimated 770,000 felons who still owe court fees, fines and restitution will remain ineligible to vote.has been condemned as a segregation-era poll tax by critics and was called unconstitutional by a Tallahassee federal judge. But that ruling was reversed 6-4 by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal. With Monday the deadline for registering to vote in Florida for the Nov. 3 election, court-assessed financial obligations will continue to bar a massive pool of potential voters in the nation’s biggest presidential swing state, despite efforts that have raised $20 million to cover these costs helped by such celebrities as the NBA’s LeBron James and billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former Democratic presidential candidate. The so-called returning citizens – if added to the voter rolls – could clearly shape what polls in Florida show is a deadlocked contest between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.But how many felons have been successfully added to the voter rolls – and how many will cast ballots next month – is unknown. Florida election officials don’t keep track of these new voters, but they did acknowledge during a court hearing in May that they had found 85,000 voter-registration applications of felons who may have outstanding financial obligations. Under the appeals court ruling, they can be removed from voter rolls only if the state’s Division of Elections determines they still owe money.Federal appeals court blocks Florida's felons from voting until fees and fines are paid But many felons have no idea what they owe, and Florida court clerks have no centralized system for determining these financial obligations, some going back decades and involving several jurisdictions. National voting rights advocates said Florida is not the only state putting up roadblocks to casting ballots, but is among the most egregious. “Florida has secured its place as a state bent on disenfranchising returning citizens, a disproportionate number of whom are Black and brown, by any means necessary,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The National Bar Association, a group of mostly African-American attorneys and judges, recently started a two-year initiative to help raise money to pay fines and fees and help with legal services. The effort in Florida will go beyond the presidential election, said CK Hoffler, the association’s president. “All craziness happens in Florida … especially with elections,” said Hoffler, who has practiced law in the state. The payment requirement also raises uncertainty in a community of Floridians already wary of running afoul of the law again, analysts said. Neel Sukhatme, a Georgetown University law professor, who is working with a nonpartisan nonprofit called Free Our Vote to help Florida felons determine what they owe, said it’s unlikely anyone would be criminally charged if they registered to vote unaware of what they owed.But for people eager to avoid any further conflict with the legal system, such assurances mean little. “As a practical matter, I think they’re still disenfranchising these people,” Sukhatme said. “If you’re just trying to make ends meet, but there’s a thought that there’s a chance you get prosecuted if you try to vote, I’m not going to do it. Why would I?”“I know what people are going through,” said Riddle, who said she plans to pay at least $2,000 in court fees and fines she owes before voting in November. “Some people are discouraged. And there are a lot of angry people out here. They know this is not justice.” In Miami-Dade, the state’s most populous county, the supervisor of elections office said 549 felons from the county have successfully registered to vote as of Thursday. But in neighboring Broward, the state’s second-most populous county, election officials say they have no way of tracking how many of their residents have regained their right to vote. Riddle is among dozens of activists working to get felons on the voter rolls under the guidance of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which led the 2018 ballot campaign. Coalition President Desmond Meade, who had a string of drug convictions more than two decades ago, regained his voting rights last year. But he acknowledged the appellate court ruling has disrupted voter registration efforts, and that among felons with outstanding legal obligations a much smaller cohort is likely to be added to the voter rolls this year than hoped for. Meade estimated that his campaign will be able erase the financial obligations of about 20,000 of the estimated 770,000 felons who still owe fines, fees or restitution. “We’re going to remove those obstacles, and there’s going to be 20,000 people that’s out there who otherwise would not have had an opportunity, but if they choose to participate in this election they will have the opportunity,” Meade said. While that falls far short of the goal of backers of Amendment 4, which was approved by almost 65% of Florida voters two years ago, Meade said his organization is taking the long view. There are more elections ahead. “We believe in putting people over politics,” Meade said. “Anytime politics stands in the way, we go around it, through it, over it, whatever. But we know we’re going to continue to maintain focus on the people.” Joining the L.A. Lakers’ James, singers John Legend and Ariana Grande are helping raise money for the coalition, which has attracted some 80,000 contributors, Meade said. Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, said he has raised $16 million for the effort, and the coalition said it now has $20 million on hand to pay the legal financial obligations of those looking to register.“The deadline is brutal,” Meade said. “But I’ve faced brutal obstacles my entire life.”Florida’s ruling Republicans, however, are taking issue with the Bloomberg donation. Attorney General Ashley Moody has asked the FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate whether the donation violates state or federal election laws. Moody cited a state law prohibiting any “bribery, menace, threat or other corruption whatsoever, either directly or indirectly, attempts to influence, deceive, or deter any elector in voting.”But a memo from his team last month said: “We know to win Florida, we will need to persuade, motivate and add new votes to the Biden column,” fueling Republican anxiety over the fundraising for felon voting. Meade, though, said it was jaw-dropping to think that payments would go only to people who said they’d vote for Biden. “Under no circumstances are we ever having a conversation like that with anyone,” Meade said. “When people are signing up, we don’t ask any questions about political preferences.”
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