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It is 23 years since Bonny McKinnon, then a teenager with no criminal record, got in a fight with her cousin in a Jacksonville, Florida, apartment. Exactly what happened that night may never be clear. But McKinnon was convicted of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. She served one year and one month in a Florida penitentiary. 

For years, McKinnon wanted to vote but could not. She grew up in those years. She had three children, held down jobs and learned “to pick myself up and keep going.” When a state referendum to restore voting rights to people who had served their sentences passed overwhelmingly in 2018, McKinnon embraced the act of casting a ballot as “some kind of way to have your voice heard.”

But, now, McKinnon is one of an estimated 900,000 returning citizens barred from voting in Florida. A federal appeals court ruled in September that Floridians with felony criminal records are ineligible to cast a ballot unless they have paid back all their outstanding court fines and fees – in McKinnon’s case, at least $700.

Florida’s felony disenfranchisement law dates back to the mid-19^th century. New constitutions and new statutes specifically designed to enforce white supremacy and keep Black citizens from exercising political power were also enacted by Southern states in the early days of Jim Crow segregation. After the Civil War, they expanded criminal codes to include offenses for which lawmakers believed Black people could be most easily convicted and then heightened the penalties for those laws.

The legacy of those laws remains today. When formerly incarcerated individuals return to society, they face limited educational, employment and housing opportunities. These policies persist in part because the very people affected by them are denied the right to vote and don’t have a say in their own future.

“They make it very hard for you to just want to live, just want to say, ‘Yes, America is great,’” said McKinnon, who is Black. “You have the hope of America being great, but for minorities and people of color, they make it impossible.”

To ensure equitable access to the ballot box in Florida and throughout the Deep South, the Southern Poverty Law Center is investing up to $30 million from its endowment in nonpartisan, nonprofit voter outreach. The aim is to increase voter registration and participation among people of color, like McKinnon, over several election cycles.

In addition to Florida, the new Vote Your Voice initiative – a partnership with the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta – supports voter education and mobilization in Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi.

The campaign seeks to empower communities of color by aiding them in their fight against voter suppression; bolster Black- and Brown-led voter outreach organizations often ignored by traditional funders; support and prototype effective voter engagement strategies; and re-enfranchise formerly incarcerated people. The Vote Your Voice grantees – currently 40 in total – are encouraging millions of voters across the South to exercise their basic right to vote and ensure that they are able to elect, and hold accountable, candidates who represent their values. 

A total of $10 million has been distributed in the first two rounds of grants: $2,910,000 in Florida; $2,460,000 in Georgia; $505,000 in Alabama; $1,210,000 in Louisiana; $1,205,000 in Mississippi; $500,000 for a project focused on Alabama and Georgia; and $1,210,000 for multistate projects.

Read more here.

In solidarity,

Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center