https://themilitant.com/2019/04/06/outcry-hits-attempt-to-gut-florida-voting-rights-victory/
Outcry hits attempt to gut Florida voting rights victory
??By Seth Galinsky
Vol. 83/No. 15
April 15, 2019
Working people and other supporters of democratic rights are standing up
to attempts to undermine a popular victory for the voting rights of
ex-prisoners in Florida. Amendment 4 to the state Constitution, which
passed by 64.6 percent last November, restores these rights to more than
a million people released after serving time on felony convictions.
Newly elected Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who won with less than 50
percent of the vote, announced after the election that the legislature
needed to pass ???implementing language.??? He hoped to restrict the effect
of the amendment.
The amendment states that voting rights for those convicted of felonies
shall be restored ???after they complete all terms of their sentence
including parole or probation,??? except for those ???convicted of murder or
sexual offenses.???
Before the amendment passed, regaining the right to vote was at the whim
of the governor. For all but a small number of ex-prisoners this meant
they were permanently denied the right to vote.
Most working people, whatever their skin color or nationality, backed
the amendment because they know there is nothing ???just??? about the
so-called criminal justice system. Many have done time themselves,
whether ???guilty??? or not, or have friends or relatives who have. Most are
well aware that it affects all working people, while disproportionately
falling on those who are Black.
The governor and some of his allies in the Florida Assembly and Senate
are pushing for a new law that would prevent ex-prisoners from regaining
the right to vote unless they have paid off every penny of outstanding
court costs and other financial obligations, including restitution
judgments and civil penalties. They also want to change the definition
of murder to include attempted murder and to rewrite the definition of
sexual offenses to include prostitution. This would prevent tens of
thousands from being able to vote.
Coral Nichol, 40, told a state Senate committee March 25 that she owes
$190,000 in restitution after serving four years in prison and 10 on
probation for grand theft. Under her court-approved restitution plan,
she pays $100 a month. If the Senate plan is signed into law, she won???t
be eligible to vote for 190 years.
Some opponents of the proposed restrictions called the
Republican-sponsored plan a ???poll tax,??? a reference to the days before
the overthrow of Jim Crow segregation when Blacks and poor Caucasian
workers were blocked from voting by a tax levied on anyone who wanted to
cast a ballot. Poll taxes were banned with passage of the 24th Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution in 1964.
After an outcry, the bill???s sponsors have made changes to ease some of
the most egregious proposed restrictions. None of the bills have come to
a vote before the Assembly or the Senate yet.
Protesters rally at state Capitol
Several hundred people, many former prisoners, rallied by the state
Capitol in Tallahassee March 12 to defend Amendment 4.
Neil Volz, treasurer of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, told
the rally they are fighting for ???full implementation??? of the amendment
and more.
???There???s a huge challenge trying to re-enter society and it involves
trying to get a job, get a license and the ability to be hired by
somebody,??? he said, noting they would fight against the discrimination
former prisoners face re-establishing their lives on the outside.
Volz said they would also be campaigning to change some of Florida???s
laws that make felonies out of acts that in most states are prosecuted
as misdemeanors. In Texas theft of under $1,500 is a misdemeanor, not a
felony. ???In Florida the threshold is $300,??? Volz said.
???At first the governor was saying that nobody should register until the
state passed a new law,??? Cecile Scoon, first vice president of the
Florida League of Women Voters, one of the groups that backed the
amendment, told the Militant by phone March 30. Some former prisoners
were worried that if they registered and were found ineligible they
might be prosecuted for voting fraud.
But the outcry was so strong the governor had to back down. Thousands
have filed to regain their voting rights.
Scoon was at the March 12 rally. She said it???s ???my great pleasure??? to
meet former prisoners, inspired by the victory, ???who say, ???I???m going to
stand up for myself.??? It???s our goal for people who have been oppressed
to get their own voices.???
At least 11 other states have laws on the books as restrictive as
Florida had before the amendment was passed. There are fights being
waged for referenda and changes in a number of them, including in Iowa
and Kentucky. In only one state, Vermont, do those convicted of felony
charges retain their right to vote even while behind bars.
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Workers Party candidate for New York City Public Advocate.?? The
capitalist rulers??? so-called criminal justice system and its prisons
have absolutely nothing to do with ???rehabilitation.??? They have everything???
Woodfox shines light on prison abuse, solitary confinement
NEW YORK ??? Albert Woodfox spent nearly 44 years in solitary confinement
in a 6-by-9 foot cell in Louisiana???s notorious Angola prison. He and
fellow prisoners Herman Wallace and Robert King came into the sights of
authorities there after organizing???
In This Issue
Front Page Articles ???Uber drivers fight bosses??? pay cuts across California
???SWP launches drive to expand reach of books and ???Militant???
???Cease-fire can open political space in Israel and in Gaza
???New Jersey protest: ???Driver???s license is a necessity for immigrant
workers???
???Two-year-long anti-Trump ???Russia collusion??? witch hunt fizzles out
???Ongoing trade rivalry between US and Chinese rulers ripples worldwide
Feature Articles ???Woodfox shines light on prison abuse, solitary confinement
Also In This Issue ???New Zealand rulers use mosque attacks to target
political rights
???Help us go over the top in $115,000 Militant Fighting Fund
???Kurdistan debate on road to women???s emancipation
???Iraq protests win firing of governor in ferry disaster
???Outcry hits attempt to gut Florida voting rights victory
???End solitary confinement! Voting rights for ex-prisoners!
On the Picket Line ???Chicago hospital workers rally to protest short
staffing, low pay
Books of the Month ???Fidel: ???Without Che???s ideas, communism can???t be
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25, 50 and 75 years ago
Letters
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Christopher Hitchens
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??? Christopher Hitchens,