Florida votes to restore ex-felon voting rights with Amendment 4

[JonLP24]

Source: Vox

The victory means more than 1 million people will regain the right to vote.
By German [e-mail]@vox.com Nov 6, 2018, 8:53pm EST

Florida voters during Tuesday’s midterm elections approved Amendment 4, automatically restoring voting rights in the state for people previously convicted of felonies.

Florida’s Amendment 4 restores voting rights for people in the state convicted of felonies as long as they have completed their sentences, although anyone convicted of murder or felony sex offenses would be excluded.

Based on the Sentencing Project’s 2016 estimates, this benefits more than a million people. The organization estimated in 2016 that nearly 1.5 million people in Florida have completed felony sentences but can’t vote — about 9.2 percent of the voting-age population in Florida. The total, though, includes some people convicted of murder and felony sex offenses, so not every one of those people benefits under Amendment 4.

Black people, who are disproportionately arrested and incarcerated, will benefit the most. In 2016, more than 418,000 black people out of a black voting-age population of more than 2.3 million, or 17.9 percent of potential black voters in Florida, had finished sentences but couldn’t vote due to a felony record, according to the Sentencing Project. (Again, this includes some people convicted of murders and felony sex offenses.)

Read more: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/6/18052374/florida-amendment-4-felon-voting-rights-results

[Doreen]

1. I know a lady in my apartment complex who has 3 felonies

and wish she could vote and she would be voting Democrat all the way. I really do not understand if they should or should not vote. I do wish the lady in complex could.

[obamanut2012]

7. Why shouldn't ex felons have the right to vote???

[efhmc]

2. This was supported by Dems and repugs.

Makes so much sense to give people back the right to go forward with their lives in a positive way.

[JohnnyRingo]

3. It's about time.

This was a law crafted to bar likely democrats from voting for life. Pure and simple.

[Socal31]

4. Watch the John Oliver segment on this on his HBO show.

I mean it. Once you do, no sane person would be on the fence on this. It needed to pass, at least in FL.

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

[Judi Lynn]

6. I think Jeb Bush and his ilk were interested in blocking reform on the felon voting rights, in 2000.

People have struggled so long to overturn this conspicuous attempt to suppress votes from minority people, knowing drug arrests are always unequally pursued, always.

Remember Rush Limbaugh in Palm Beach, sending a woman who worked in his home out to find tons of oxy for him, and the fact he was NEVER approached by Florida police. Filthy jerks.

[SergeStorms]

8. That's huge!

That's over 1 million new Florida voters, and because of Florida's racial targeting a majority are POC. We have to be there to convince them voting Democratic is in their best interests.

[TexasBushwhacker]

9. FL voted to end dog racing too n/t

[stuffmatters]

10. Wonderful