Many ex-felons owe more than they could ever repay, and were therefore still unable to vote in Florida
hierarchy of elections, the presidentials sit squarely at the top, drawing the most voters and interest. Next are the mid-terms. Off-year elections come last. On November 5th, three states will choose governors, two others will elect state legislators and some districts will elect mayors or replacement congressmen. In most of America, a tiny share of the electorate will trudge dutifully to the polls to choose school-board officials and vote on ballot or tax questions.
That may sound reasonable enough. If you embezzled money from your employer, your sentence should include restitution. But jurisdictions in Florida impose a dizzying array of fees on convicts designed to raise revenue for the state: a $50 “application fee” for a public defender, $100 each for the public defender and the prosecutor’s “costs”, and various crime-specific surcharges. These can quickly add up—particularly for poor felons.
The amendment itself did not mention financial restitution; it simply stated that “any disqualification from voting arising from a felony conviction shall terminate...upon completion of all terms of sentence including parole or probation.” But Jeff Brandes, a Republican senator, argued that to enact the law, “we needed to define what ‘all terms’ meant.”
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