Ana Ceballos
In response to a federal judge saying that the Florida’s voting rights restoration process is unconstitutional, the state’s legal team said Monday the state’s clemency board should fix its flaws — not the courts.
State Solicitor General Amit Agarwal argued that U.S. District Judge Mark Walker should not issue any corrective orders, saying “there is no reason to upend the state’s constitutional and statutory framework.”
Rather, the Board of Executive Clemency itself should come up with a system that meets constitutional muster.
Fair Election Legal Network, the group that sued the state for running a system that “hinders former felons from truly reentering society,” disagreed.
The national voting rights group said the court should order the state to restore the voting rights of former felons after “any waiting period of a specific duration of time” set forth by the state or the board.
Currently, that waiting period is five years after completing their sentences. Except for those convicted of murder or a sex offenses; they must wait seven years.
The legal teams of both groups filed their briefs with Walker, who had ordered them to submit briefs to find a remedy for the system’s deficiencies.
“An injunction requiring (the state) to affirmatively act to create a new vote-restoration procedure would be inappropriate,” the state argued.
Federal courts, it added, “cannot issue an order that is tantamount to saying ‘act right.’ ”
Scott has helped shape the current voter-restoration system which requires all felons to wait at least five years after they serve their sentences to apply to have their voting rights restored.
The clemency board that oversees a felon’s case consists of Scott and the three members of the Florida Cabinet—Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, Attorney General Pam Bondi and state CFO Jimmy Patronis. The governor, however, does have sole power to reject an application.
It can take years for the board to hear a case and currently the state has a backlog of more than 10,000 cases, which could cost taxpayers $500,000 to fix next year if the Legislature approves it.
The state of Florida is home to about 1.5 million citizens who cannot cast a vote.
As the legal fight continues in court, Floridians will be able to cast their own ballot in November to decide whether ex-felons should have their voting rights automatically restored.
A citizen initiative to add a “Voting Restoration Amendment” to the state constitution needs 60 percent approval. If it passes, the amendment could have wide-ranging political implications in the nation’s largest swing state.
One comment
Lisa Leikus
February 14, 2018 at 11:48 am
No thanks. Rick Scott is responsible for these people not getting their voting rights back in the first place. Now he wants us to allow him to “fix” it. Bwahahahaha! I was born at night, but not last night. I’m keeping Nelson in the Senate and voting Graham for Florida’s Governor. Let’s kick liar, oppresor, murderer Rick Scott out of politics.
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