Voters in Florida approved an amendment to the state constitution that would restore voting rights to as many as 1.5 million former felons. Registration began on Tuesday.
As results from the recent midterm elections show and the book under review chronicles, restrictive voter identification laws, registration requirements, felon disenfranchisement and voter purges still deny millions access to the ballot box.
Florida's referendum approving the grant of voting rights to 1.4 million returning citizens is the single largest expansion of the franchise since passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
In many states, people held without a felony conviction are eligible to vote—but confusion, fear, and a long list of logistical complications often stand in their way.
Voter suppression could mar the midterms. But pro-voter ballot initiatives in several states offer the chance to dramatically expand and strengthen our democracy.
Today, nearly every Southern state has preempted local minimum wage increases. These laws have been passed in response to recent efforts by big cities, which include more non-white residents, to increase wages for the lowest paid workers.
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