The Supreme Court of Florida recently approved a ballot initiative petition for the Voting Restoration Amendment. This law, if it obtains the required number of signatures and is approved by Florida voters in the November 2018 election, would amend the state constitution to automatically restore the voting rights of felons convicted of non-homicide, non-sexual offenses upon completion of all terms of their sentence.
The amendment represents a change to Florida’s criminal justice system that is long overdue.
Florida is an outlier in its harsh treatment of felons. The state has a higher percentage of disenfranchised felons in its population than any other state in the country.1
It also is one of the most difficult states for convicted felons to seek restoration of their voting rights. The only way that a felon can currently regain his or her right to vote in Florida is to petition the governor for clemency, a process for which many felons do not qualify and can take well over 10 years to complete for those that do.
Stripping convicted felons of the right to vote only serves to punish those who have served their sentence and demonstrated a sincere interest in rehabilitation and civic engagement.
Many Floridians take their right to vote for granted, with turnout rates hovering around 75 percent for presidential elections and 50 percent for mid-term elections.2
Those ex-offenders who go on to commit further crimes (which make up about 30 percent of convicted felons) are likely not the type of person inclined to show up on Election Day in the first place.
By contrast, out of all the convicted felons who had their rights restored in Florida between 2011 and 2015, only five re-offended.3
Felon disenfranchisement also distorts election results to favor demographics to which the criminal justice system gives preferential treatment, such as wealthier individuals who can afford private counsel.
Ten percent of adults in the state cannot vote due to a felony conviction. This widespread disenfranchisement falls most heavily on black communities, since a black person is more likely to be convicted of a felony than a white person who commits the same crime.
As a result, one in five black adults in Florida cannot vote because of a felony conviction.4 The incarcerated and disenfranchised are still counted when drawing legislative districts, however. This means that not only are these individuals robbed of a voice in the political process, but their presence also increases the voting strength of those living around them, who may hold different political views.
The cost of depriving felons their voting rights far outweighs any retributive benefits the law may have. Florida’s criminal justice system already provides many ways to punish wrongdoers. Courts also have wide discretion in choosing which punishments to impose to ensure an offender receives a sentence commensurate with their crime.
But every felon in Florida, whether they are found guilty of murder or failure to return a rental car, receives a life sentence of political disenfranchisement.
The Voting Restoration Amendment could restore a civic voice to these individuals and reshape Florida’s electorate to more accurately reflect its population. Unfortunately, and quite ironically, those whose lives are most affected by this proposed change will not have a say in whether it passes.
Editor’s note
This month’s contribution features just one side of the debate about restoration of felon rights. If you have a different point of view, or if there’s a topic you’d like to see addressed in the future, contact Cyndy Trimmer ([email protected]) or Christian George ([email protected]) to participate.
CITATIONS:
1 K.K. Rebecca Lai and Jasmine C. Lee, Why 10% of Florida Adults Can’t Vote: How Felony Convictions Affect Access to the Ballot. N.Y. Times, Oct. 6, 2016.
2 Florida Division of Elections, Voter Turnout, http://dos.myflorida.com/elections/data-statistics/elections-data/voter-turnout/ (last visited May 25, 2017).
3 Erika L. Wood, Florida: An Outlier in Denying Voting Rights, Brenan Center for Justice, Dec. 16, 2016.
4 Lai & Lee, supra n. 1