New rule could help Florida felons learn voter eligibility : NPR

Election officials in Florida say they are working to “streamline” a process for formerly incarcerated people to figure out whether they are eligible to vote in the state.

Florida’s Department of State is considering a proposal to formalize how people who served time for a felony conviction can ask the state to clarify if they have met all the requirements to get their voting rights back. The rule change would eventually need to be approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

In 2018, voters in Florida approved a ballot measure, known as Amendment 4, that “restores the voting rights of Floridians with felony convictions after they complete all terms of their sentence including parole or probation.” The measure excludes people who committed murder or a felony sex offense.

But before Amendment 4 went into effect, Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a law requiring that returning citizens fulfill every part of their sentence — including paying any fees or fines — in order to regain voting rights.

However, lawmakers did not create any system or database for Floridians to look up what they needed to pay to get their rights back.

“It really created a challenge for — we will say roughly 700,000 — so hundreds of thousands of individuals are impacted,” said Desmond Meade, executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. “And of course, you know, we definitely can’t conclusively say every single one has been trying to figure this thing out. But we do know that there are hundreds of thousands of folks that just don’t know.”

Neil Volz, the coalition’s deputy director, said he’s been working with state officials for years to “create a better system that will provide clarity in a specific period of time” for people who want their rights back.

“For a long time, we’ve been trying to cut through the clutter … and keep things as simple as possible,” he said. “In saying that, we believe a step forward would be the state acknowledging they would give a yes or no answer to a returning citizen looking for clarity in a specific time period.”

The agency’s proposal would create a 90-day window for the state to respond to a request from a returning citizen.

Mark Ard, director of external affairs for Florida’s Department of State, told NPR in a statement that former felons “have always been able to request an opinion, even before this rulemaking.” He said Floridians have been able to clear things up by reaching out to the agency’s general counsel’s office for an advisory opinion on whether they are eligible to vote.

“This rule update is to provide procedures tailored to those requests, including a form, to streamline the process for these folks and us,” Ard said.

The agency did not respond to questions about how many Floridians have requested an opinion from the general counsel’s office since Amendment 4 went into effect, or how quickly those requests were resolved.

According to the new rule, after rendering an opinion on a person’s eligibility, the state’s election division would send a copy to the person who submitted the request, as well as county supervisors of elections throughout the state.

Volz said his group’s expectation is that if the person is not eligible to register to vote, the state would tell them why.

“And it could be something as simple as unpaid legal financial obligation that needs to be paid,” he said. “And if that’s the case, the citizen is able to rectify that.”

As of now, it’s unclear whether state officials would tell returning citizens in that initial correspondence exactly how much they owe.

Mass arrests in 2022 were a “catalyst” for a solution

Although advocates have been clamoring for years for an easier process for the formerly incarcerated, Meade said the “catalyst” for this proposal was a series of alleged voter fraud arrests two years ago.

In 2022, the state’s newly created election police unit announced it had arrested about 20 felons for voting in the 2020 election, even though they weren’t eligible under Amendment 4. Many of those arrested said they thought they were eligible because they were given voter registration cards by local election officials.

While the controversial cases quickly faced roadblocks in court, they also highlighted underlying issues with the state’s system for tracking who is and isn’t eligible to vote.

Volz said instead of spending money on investigations, arrests and the “machinery of law enforcement,” the state could have spent money on creating a system that would have stopped people on the front end from getting registered when they are ineligible.

“And we saw the real impact on real people’s lives in Florida,” Volz said, “in which you had Florida citizens being arrested by exactly the same state who had issued them voter ID cards. This proposed process would allow us to move away from that time period and all the things that were associated with that.”

Likely too late for 2024 elections

Meade said he’s optimistic, and that this proposal is a “big step on the part of the state to help people” get a “solid answer” on their voter eligibility.

However, he said there is “a very low expectation” that this will all be sorted before this year’s election — in which Florida voters will also be weighing in on big issues like abortion rights and legalizing recreational marijuana.

“By the time it’s finalized, it should be well past the 90-day window to give someone an answer in order for them to be able to register on time to participate in the general election this year,” Meade said.

“And while this is an important election, it is not going to be the only election,” he said. “And so even though folks may not get to participate in this one, there’s going to be other opportunities. And fortunately, hopefully, we will have a system that’s in place that will make that process a lot smoother, a lot more certain, and instill more confidence in prospective voters.”