“If I go vote, [Gov. Ron] DeSantis will have me arrested,” said one person with a felony conviction who’s listed as an active voter on a state website.
This new voting bloc is made up of several different demographic groups, including young people, ex-felons, and newly naturalized citizens.
Black and Latinx people are disproportionately affected by disenfranchisement laws, which are still in effect in most U.S. states.
States can no longer deny people access to the ballot box based on unpaid court costs and fees, nor can they condition rights restoration on restitution and fines that a person cannot afford to pay.
"The Constitution can't operate as the supreme law of our nation if it's consistently subverted."
As officials try to frustrate the implementation of constitutional amendment that passed with 65 percent of the vote, a slow-motion crisis is building in the state of Florida.
An extraordinary number of people with felony convictions are unfairly prohibited from voting, and the worst state for this — surprise — is Florida.
A Florida coalition is working to amend the Florida state constitution so that it guarantees voting accessibility for all citizens—a state-level voting rights act. “We’re focusing on legislation that grants an explicit right to vote in Florida,” says Katherine Culliton-González. “It would aim at big picture issues and make voting a fundamental right so no election law changes could happen that would take us back in time.”
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