Florida voters amended the state Constitution in 2018 to make it easier for ex-felons to vote, a promise the state’s Republican leadership has blocked at every turn. Nobody should doubt that this disenfranchisement will continue, so the question becomes: What will Floridians do to make this constitutional guarantee finally become a reality?
The folly of expecting Gov. Ron DeSantis to do the right thing was highlighted again by a Tampa Bay Times report that exposed a new front in the weaponization of felon voting rights. A week after DeSantis announced the arrests of 20 felons in August for alleged voter fraud, his administration quietly made a change that could help the state go after more people.
Starting in August, Floridians on probation have been required to sign an updated form placing the burden on them to determine if they’re eligible to vote. “By signing this letter,” the form states, “you agree that you are solely responsible for determining if you are legally able to register to vote and that you must solely determine if you are lawfully qualified to vote.”
Good luck with that. People with felony convictions who are on probation are not eligible to vote in Florida, anyway. Some people on probation without a felony record should be eligible to vote, but the form offers no guidance on determining one’s status, beyond consulting an attorney. Probationers are not instructed to consult with a county elections office or to seek an advisory opinion on their eligibility from the secretary of state’s office, which oversees elections. And probation officers also “may not give advice on voting restoration,” the form states.
This is a new leaf on the entrapment tree that Republicans devised to frustrate or simply scare away felons from exercising their rights. Placing the burden on citizens — not the state — to determine voting status is asking the impossible. Florida has no centralized database to determine if felons have completed all terms of their sentences, including paying all fines, fees and restitution, before being allowed to register. That last requirement was adopted by the Legislature and signed into law by DeSantis in 2019, after Floridians adopted Amendment 4. If the government cannot determine a felon’s eligibility, how possibly could a felon do it themself?
Adding another row to the hedge maze by scaring people away is an effective voter suppression tactic. Two years after Amendment 4 was passed, only about 8% of Floridians with felony convictions had registered to vote, in part because the state acknowledged it was “struggling” to identify ineligible felons. Yet now a government that cannot process voter registrations on the front end wants to arrest ineligible voters on the back end. Each of those arrested in August had previously been convicted of murder or felony sex offenses, making them ineligible to vote in the first place — yet the department of state, which reports to DeSantis, allowed them on the rolls and to vote in 2020 anyway.
This harassment has nothing to do with election security. But if we pretend it does for a moment, wouldn’t a reliable process for vetting registrations serve the interests of election integrity and civil liberties alike? Florida needs to create a centralized database to determine if felons have fully completed their sentences. And in cases where court records are missing or destroyed, there should be a reasonable cutoff date for the presumption of eligibility to apply.
It’s important to remember what we’re talking about here. Nobody is seeking to give teaching licenses to sex offenders or gun permits to murderers. A voter ID card is a vehicle for acclimating felons back into society. Participating affirms the value of democratic institutions and self-worth, and it gives more skin in their community, state and country. If lawmakers continue to stall, Floridians should amend the constitution again to make the restoration process cleaner. Felons should have this right to vote upon being released from prison. Nothing about voting interferes with serving probation or paying financial penalties. Florida voters supported Amendment 4 because it was seen as liberating. It’s time to fulfill that promise.
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Editorials are the institutional voice of the Tampa Bay Times. The members of the Editorial Board are Editor of Editorials Graham Brink, Sherri Day, Sebastian Dortch, John Hill, Jim Verhulst and Chairman and CEO Conan Gallaty. Follow @TBTimes_Opinion on Twitter for more opinion news.
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