Florida leads nation in denying franchise; fails to notify more than 13,000 people of right to vote restoration

 

A Reprint from Disinfranchisement News, The Sentencing Project

 

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Florida leads the nation in disenfranchising people who have served time for felonies–especially for African Americans.  According to The Sentencing Project, some 520,500 African Americans – 23 percent of Florida’s black voting-age population – could not vote because of a felony conviction in 2010.

The Sentencing Project report, State-Level Estimates of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States, 2010, written by Christopher Uggen and Sarah Shannon of the University of Minnesota  and Jeff Manza of New York University, estimated that in 2010, a total of 5.85 million people who had been convicted of felonies could not vote.

Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott and his cabinet made it more difficult for someone with a felony conviction to regain the franchise, establishing a five- or seven-year wait, before they can apply to have their rights restored.

Florida fails to notify more than 13,000 people of right to vote restoration

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida reported that a public records request filed by the organization with the Florida Parole Commission discovered 17,604 Restoration of Civil Rights (RCR) certificates that were returned to the Parole Commission as “undeliverable.”  

The result: thousands of citizens who completed a sentence for a felony conviction now have the right to vote but have not been notified by the state.

ACLU review of the state’s voter rolls indicates that more than 75 percent of those now eligible to vote have not registered to vote, largely because they don’t know that their civil rights have been restored.

The RCR certificates returned as undeliverable may have kept more than 13,000 citizens from voting in the August 14th primary. Unless they are informed of the restoration of their vote and register for the presidential election by October 9th, they may be unable to vote in the November election.

Few Regain Right to Vote in Florida

Vikki Hankins has never voted, but she feels that she’s earned the right, according to an article the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. She is one of about 1.5 million Floridians fighting for the vote — a right more difficult to regain under Republican Gov. Rick Scott than his GOP predecessor. 

Since her release in 2008, Hankins, 43, who served 18 years for selling crack cocaine, has completed an associate’s degree, started a publishing company and runs an advocacy group for criminal justice.

But she is worried that she won’t regain her civil rights — to vote, serve on a jury and hold public office —until she’s “50, 60 years old,” she  said.

To date, Gov. Scott has restored civil rights to only 78 people.