R i g h t a r d i a: Capital Soup: Florida legislature passed law to disenfranchise released felons

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Capital Soup: Florida legislature passed law to disenfranchise released felons

Charlie Crist did the right thing when he was governor and did away with the vote suppression laws that Jeb Bush had signed into law and helped elect his brother to the presidency in 2001. Now the Florida legislature thinks released felons should wait 7 years until they can vote again.

Once a convict is released, the voting rights should be immediately restored. There should be no additional penalties for imprisonment. in fact, In many countries prisoners can vote while they are incarcerated.

Pure and simple: this is vote suppression. State Representative, Geraldine F. Thompson, District 39, wrote this letter to the US Attorney General, Eric Holder.

The Honorable Eric Holder
Attorney General
United States of America
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D. C. 20530-0001

Dear Attorney General Holder:

Florida officials recently created new rules that require ex offenders who have paid their debt to society to wait five to seven years before they can apply to have their voting rights restored. As a result, more than 100,000 Floridians, including a disproportionate number of racial minorities will not be able to vote in 2012, 2014 or in any election in the foreseeable future.

Additionally, the individuals impacted must now complete an exhaustive application in order to get a hearing on the restoration of their rights. Even those individuals who had completed their applications and were in line to have their rights restored must now begin the newly imposed waiting period of five or seven years.

These changes, which delay access to the ballot box, are compounded by recent legislation in Florida that makes it difficult to register to vote and difficult to vote. House bill 1355 reduces the days provided for early voting, prohibits voters from changing their addresses and names at the polls, and potentially imposes fines on third parties who register others to vote. Because these changes impact voting rights and procedures in Florida, I ask that you review these changes for their clear impact on racial minorities under the Voting Rights Act. I believe these measures will have a discriminatory impact and result in retrogression of minority voting rights in Florida and, therefore, I ask that you reject these changes.

Sincerely,

Geraldine F. Thompson
District 39