[ “If I go vote, [Gov. Ron] DeSantis will have me arrested,”
said one person with a felony conviction who’s listed as an active
voter on a state website.]
[[link removed]]

FOUR YEARS AFTER FLORIDA VOTED TO RESTORE VOTING RIGHTS FOR PEOPLE
CONVICTED OF A FELONY, AN ESTIMATED 1 MILLION STILL CAN’T VOTE IN
THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS  
[[link removed]]


 

Stephanie K. Baer
November 4, 2022
BuzzFeed
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ “If I go vote, [Gov. Ron] DeSantis will have me arrested,” said
one person with a felony conviction who’s listed as an active voter
on a state website. _

A screenshot from the body camera footage obtained by the Tampa Bay
Times shows Tony Patterson's reaction to learning he was being charged
with voter fraud., youtube.com

 

When Floridians voted in 2018 to give voting rights back to people
convicted of a felony after they completed their sentence, Caroline T.
was thrilled.

The 48-year-old Apopka resident had recently been released from
federal prison after serving six months for theft of government funds.
As soon as she finished her probation, she could vote again like any
other American, she thought.

But four years later, it’s not that simple. Despite completing her
prison time and three years of probation, Caroline is one of nearly 1
million formerly incarcerated people in Florida who still can't vote
in Tuesday’s midterm elections because they owe fines, fees, or
restitution in connection with their convictions, according to a new
report by the Sentencing Project
[[link removed]].
Meanwhile, Gov. Ron DeSantis has launched a new elections security
force that voting rights advocates and academics say may scare away
people who should be able to vote. More than a dozen people with
felony convictions
[[link removed]],
including individuals who believed their rights had been restored
[[link removed]],
have been arrested on suspicion of voter fraud in recent months.

“Even if it wasn't an intentional motive, it might still have that
effect and depress turnout,” Aubrey Jewett, a political science
professor at the University of Central Florida, told BuzzFeed News.

Caroline, who asked that her full name not be published for privacy
reasons, said she could have far too easily assumed that she is
allowed to vote. No government agencies have notified her that she is
ineligible, and the election websites of both the Florida Department
of State and Orange County list her as an active voter. She said she
even received a ballot in the mail last March to vote in her city’s
mayoral and city council elections. “I mailed it back and I was
like, _I can't vote_,” Caroline said.

Still, as of Thursday, the state’s voter registration website
suggests that she is eligible to vote. If she took that at face value,
she’d be at risk of being criminally charged and completely
derailing her life, again.

“It says I'm an active voter,” she said, “but if I go vote,
DeSantis will have me arrested.”

Courtesy Caroline T.

A screenshot from the Florida Department of State's voter information
website shows Caroline is listed as an active voter.

Over 64%
[[link removed](2018)] of
voters approved Amendment 4
[[link removed]],
which restored voting rights to people convicted of felonies, except
for murder and sexual offenses, automatically after they complete all
the terms of their sentences, including parole or probation. When it
was passed in November 2018, the initiative was expected to impact
approximately 1.4 million people who had been permanently barred from
voting in Florida unless they were granted clemency by the governor on
a case-by-case basis.

It was thought to be the largest expansion of voting rights in Florida
since the voting age was lowered to 18 in 1971 and could have led to
an influx of Democratic-leaning voters
[[link removed]] in
the key swing state. But those potential gains were swiftly wiped out
the following year when the Republican-controlled legislature passed a
law making restoration contingent on payment of all restitution, fees,
and fines related to their convictions. Formerly incarcerated people
immediately sued the state, likening the law to a “poll tax” that
disproportionately affected people of color and those with low
incomes. A federal appeals court ultimately upheld the law
[[link removed]] in
a September 2020 ruling.

In response to the law, the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, the
group behind the 2018 amendment, set up a program to help people
figure out how much they owe and pay off their financial obligations.
Because there is no central database showing what people owe, it has
been difficult at times for individuals to determine if they have any
outstanding fees or fines.

Neil Volz, deputy director for the coalition, told BuzzFeed News it
has paid more than $30 million to remove the barrier to voting for
42,000 people with felony convictions. Still, an estimated 934,529
people
[[link removed]] in
Florida — or about 6% of the state’s adults — remain
disenfranchised due to unpaid fines, fees, or restitution, according
to the Sentencing Project’s report released in October.

Among those still unable to vote because of outstanding fees is
34-year-old Panama City resident Chandler Strong. Strong told BuzzFeed
News he still owes about $2,200 and that he is working with the
coalition to get that paid off. But they haven’t been able to take
care of it yet because of an issue with a county clerk’s office.

Strong, who sold crack cocaine as a teen and then served several years
in federal prison as an adult for conspiracy to sell a controlled
substance, said he’s worked hard to turn his life around and be a
source of inspiration for young people. The inability to vote in spite
of that and the passage of Amendment 4 feel “like a slap in the face
from the system,” he told BuzzFeed News.

“You can work as hard as you can to change something,” Strong
said, “but they're still going to try to throw some kind of
technical in the game.”

For Caroline, the state law means she probably won’t be able to vote
again unless her finances drastically change. As part of her sentence,
she was ordered to pay $186,717 back to the Department of Veterans
Affairs after she erroneously received payments meant for her mother,
who died of cancer. She currently makes $50,500 a year before taxes
with a job in the theme park industry; finding any job with a
conviction on her record has been a challenge.

Seeing formerly incarcerated people get arrested by DeSantis’s new
election crime office
[[link removed]] in
August for allegedly voting illegally in 2020 hit home for Caroline
and Strong. Body camera footage
[[link removed]] of
three of those individuals showed their confusion and dismay over
being accused of fraud for casting a ballot when they thought they
were allowed to vote.

"What is wrong with this state, man?" Tony Patterson, 40, said as he
was being arrested, according to the footage made public by the Tampa
Bay Times and Miami Herald. "Voter fraud? Y'all said anybody with a
felony could vote, man."

The individuals arrested in the state’s sting were not eligible to
vote because they were convicted of murder or a sex crime — an
exception to the restoration of rights promised by Amendment 4.
DeSantis described anyone arrested as an “illegal felon” as he
highlighted his administration’s efforts to crack down on electoral
fraud. But the arrest videos and affidavits
[[link removed]] showed
that in several cases, people had been told by a government official
that they were eligible to vote, had successfully registered and
received a voter ID card, and didn’t know they were doing anything
wrong.

“It goes to show government can do whatever they want,” Strong
said. “It's not right.”

Now, advocates worry the highly publicized arrests could chill voting
among people who can legally vote. Volz said the prosecutions by the
state have created “heightened confusion” and anxiety for
Floridians who have been convicted of felonies, and during a recent
news conference, he suggested that people who are unsure of their
eligibility should sit out this election. But Florida needs to do
better, he said.

“We believe that none of these individuals should have been arrested
nor would they have been arrested if we fixed the front of the [voter
verification] system,” Volz told BuzzFeed News.

A new petition started by the coalition
[[link removed]] calls
on the state to stop arresting formerly incarcerated individuals until
there’s an official database to accurately and easily verify voter
eligibility.

“There are people who are interested and see the solution,” Volz
said. “What we need is leadership and urgency and funding to make it
happen.”

DeSantis’s office did answer BuzzFeed News’ questions about the
petition, the issues with voter verification, and why the state is
continuing to prosecute individuals whose statements suggest they did
not intentionally break the law — as the state’s statute requires
[[link removed].] and
as one state attorney pointed out in an Oct. 14 statement
[[link removed]].

In an emailed statement, the governor's press secretary, Bryan
Griffin, defended the administration’s actions, saying that
“public trust in the integrity of elections is foundational to
democracy.”

“Florida will enforce the law, and that includes holding felons who
are prohibited from voting — like sexual offenders and murderers —
accountable if they violate the law,” Griffin said. “Our actions
to ensure elections are fair, safe, and secure are designed to
intimidate only those who intend to act fraudulently.”

So far, one of the cases filed by the state in August has been
dismissed after a judge ruled the state lacked jurisdiction to
prosecute. An attorney for 56-year-old Robert Lee Wood said he was
approached by someone at a Walmart who was registering voters. That
person incorrectly told him that Amendment 4 allowed him to vote in
spite of his second-degree murder conviction, attorney Larry Davis
told BuzzFeed News. Soon after he filled out a registration form, he
received a voter ID card in the mail and then voted in the November
2020 election.

Strong bags up voter information to hand out while
door-knocking.  Courtesy Chandler Strong

“He was certainly not aware that he was not eligible under Amendment
4, and if he would have been aware he never would have voted or
registered,” Davis said.

The attorney said he expects the dismissal means other cases brought
by DeSantis’s task force are also in trouble.

It’s also given advocates like Volz new energy as they work to get
back voting rights for those nearly 1 million people originally
covered by Amendment 4. In the meantime, Chandler Strong still has a
roughly $2,200 bill keeping him from voting. While he waits for his
rights to be restored, the Panama City resident has been spending the
days leading up to the midterm elections knocking on doors to
encourage others to go to the polls. As of Thursday, he said he had
knocked on over 1,000 doors.

“I look at it like, if I can't vote, why not encourage so many other
people to vote,” Strong said.

When he finally is able to vote himself, which he’s never been able
to do, he hopes he can show others that it’s possible to get your
life back after a conviction. “If they see Chandler Strong make it,
that will inspire them.”

_Stephanie Baer is a reporter with BuzzFeed News and is based in Los
Angeles. Contact this reporter at [email protected]._

 

* voting rights
[[link removed]]
* felons
[[link removed]]
* Florida
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]