Mitch Perry
Florida is one of only three states that require a governor’s order to restore civil rights to ex-felons. As the law stands, men and women released from the prison system must wait five years before applying for full citizenship rights. Then they must petition the governor and Cabinet for clemency, a process that can take 10 years or more.
Such a cumbersome process has led the ACLU to conclude that as many as 1.5 million people are disenfranchised by that law in the Sunshine State.
Considering that an injustice, a coalition of activist groups calling themselves Floridians for a Fair Democracy said the the fall that they would work toward correcting it. The solution, they said, would be a constitutional amendment on the 2016 ballot that would automatically restore the civil rights of former felons.
Florida Politics reported in November that the coalition included the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, the Florida Restoration Rights Coalition and the ACLU. They said they were organizing to obtain more than 68,000 verified signatures, needed to trigger a state Supreme Court review on ballot language.
“Individuals have to wait anywhere between five to seven years, depending on the nature of the crime they commit, to apply to get their rights restored. And that’s after they’ve paid their fines and restitutions, and they have to wait an additional two to five years, so you’re talking seven to 12 years before they’re able to get their rights restored,” Joyce Hamilton Henry, director of advocacy for the ACLU of Florida, said last fall while addressing the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee. “We are tired of that, because every four years we have to wait for these four individuals (in the Florida Cabinet) to make a decision” regarding the fate of ex-felons.
But organizers acknowledge they might not get the necessary signatures in time to trigger the Supreme Court review. Ultimately they would need to turn in over 688,000 signatures by February.
“Right now, I believe there are over 50,000 signatures that have been collected, and are now in the process of being turned in to the Supervisor of elections for official verification,” Desmond Meade with the Florida Restoration Rights Coalition said this week. When asked how soon he thought he’d have enough those signatures to submit to the Florida Supreme Court for review, he laughed and said, “That’s the question.”
“Hopefully, we’d like to get there soon,” he said. “I guess in the next few months. We don’t have paid people out there (collecting signatures). “
But when asked directly whether he thinks the group will make it, Meade admits, “At the pace that we’re going, it’s doubtful.”
That lack of substantial financial resources is undoubtedly the problem, which it is for so many causes and organization that attempt to get such a measure on the ballot in Florida. Meade admitted that the campaign doesn’t have any “huge benefactors,” a la John Morgan to fund their effort, labeling it a “grassroots movement.”
Speaking of Morgan, United for Care, the group largely funded by Morgan that almost got a medical marijuana constitutional amendment passed in 2014 and is attempting an effort for 2016, announced this week that has collected over 100,000 signatures that they are now turning into the supervisor of elections office, getting them verified before a Supreme Court review. It’s been reported that Morgan has already kicked in $150,000 for the 2016 effort, after having spent over $4 million single-handedly in a losing bid in 2014.
With a presidential race on the 2016 ballot, organizers for the amendment were aiming to get the measure before the voters next year. Although some might predict that a larger turnout of more liberal voters might help the measure get past the formidable 60 percent required for passage, Meade says it’s a measure that truly all Floridians should rally around.
“I don’t think there’s anything right now on the presidential ballot that would have the impact of more people’s lives than the restoration of voting rights,” he says. “So many families, an overwhelming amount of families that are impacted from our current criminal justice system, It would seem that covers such a broad range of constituents, whether they’re white, black, Republican, Democratic or independent. Everyday, American citizens are being disenfranchised. We know there’s a huge demographic impacted in this state.”
But as of now, it looks like the only way the current law may change is when there’s a change in who leads the state. That won’t take place until January 2019.
