felon voting rights

The felons were previously charged with murder or sexual assault, according to the governor. As such, Amendment Four does not apply to them and they are not allowed to vote under Florida law, he explained at a press conference in Broward.

Attorney General Ashley Moody wants the FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate whether Michael Bloomberg violated any election laws. It’s in response to the former New York Mayor raising $16 million to help pay for felons fines and fees.

Desmond Meade graduated from law school, made it onto Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people and was at the forefront of a successful crusade to restore voting rights to convicted felons in Florida.But the former drug dealer who was tossed out of the Army three decades ago hasn’t redeemed himself enough to be pardoned for his crimes by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis.

Advocates are working to get as many felons registered to vote before the next election as they can. But a new ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is making that more difficult. It requires felons to first pay off all fines and fees tied to their sentences.

Florida felons must pay off all legal financial oblations before registering to vote. The U.S. 11th District Court of Appeals handed down that ruling Friday. The decision comes after a lower court found the fees and fines were essentially a poll tax—violating the 24th amendment

With the deadline to register for the Presidential Election less than a month away, last minute voter registration efforts are ramping up. The groups Florida For All Coalition and Win Justice are using Facebook and other social media outlets to highlight a service felons can use to help get their voting rights restored.

Whether a felon can vote in Florida depends on several factors; type of crime committed, whether they’ve finished their sentence and if they’ve paid their financial debt accrued from court fees, fines, and restitution. The latter part is at the center of an ongoing lawsuit. But the League of Women Voters of Florida is promoting an alternate option: sentence modification.

Vote by mail began this week in Florida for the 2020 Primary Election and thousands of ballots have already been cast. Not part of this election however is millions of felons who won’t be allowed to vote. Those given the right back through Amendment 4 have been stymied by the court's most recent action, and those waiting for clemency likely won’t get a chance.

Hundreds of thousands of Florida felons won’t be able to cast ballots in next month’s primary elections, after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday refused to vacate an appellate court’s order in a closely watched legal battle over voting rights.

A hundred years after women earned the right to vote, they’re now the fastest-growing group of people losing it. Part 4 of this series examining felon disenfranchisement looks at how and why women are being incarcerated, and how the issue affects Black women in particular.