Florida Voting Rights Report - Executive Summary

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Written by Muslima Lewis, ACLU Florida

Executive Summary

Florida's democracy has had a checkered past. Florida's highly problematic administration of elections has frequently brought our state to the forefront of American politics.

Central to this democratic crisis has been the administration of Florida's draconian ban on voting for hundreds of thousands of Florida citizens with past felony convictions. Florida's felony disfranchisement policy is one of the most restrictive and confusing in the country. Over one million Floridians are barred from voting due to past felony convictions.^[1] Approximately 950,000 of them have completed all terms of their incarceration and/or supervision.^[2]

The restoration of civil rights (RCR) process in Florida is failing. The current RCR process is impossible to administer fairly and wasteful of taxpayers' dollars. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Floridians, including perhaps tens of thousands of citizens with nonviolent offenses who are eligible for civil rights restoration under the most expedited procedures under the Rules of Executive Clemency, remain disfranchised. Further, public safety concerns can more effectively and efficiently be addressed through licensing regulations outside the clemency process.

On April 5, 2007, the Board of Executive Clemency adopted a revised set of rules governing the restoration of voting and other civil rights for people with past felony convictions. During the almost two years since their adoption, it has become clear that the new rules fall woefully short of the promised "automatic RCR approval" for people with non-violent felony offenses. These new rules have streamlined the RCR process for many people convicted of non-violent offenses, and resulted in the enfranchisement of thousands of Floridians. However, hundreds of thousands more are still barred from voting. Many Floridians are still ineligible for civil rights restoration consideration because of RCR pre-conditions contained in the 2007 rules. Hundreds of thousands more are eligible for RCR consideration but still have not had their civil rights restored. Further, many citizens have had their civil rights restored but are not notified of that fact and/or face impediments when registering to vote.

At every step of the RCR process, there are impediments and failures that result in disfranchisement:

• People who would otherwise qualify for civil rights restoration are ineligible because they do not have the financial means to pay court-ordered restitution.
• Because the Executive Clemency Rules are difficult to understand, too many Floridians are unaware that they are eligible for restoration of their voting rights.
• The Florida RCR process requires a case-by-case review, resulting in administrative delays in the processing of civil rights restoration cases.
• Among elections officials who are responsible for registering voters with newly restored civil rights, there is widespread confusion and misunderstand ing of the RCR process, which creates additional barriers to individuals being returned to the voter rolls.

To determine whether the public is receiving accurate information about voter eligibility under the 2007 Rules of Executive Clemency, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida surveyed all 67 Florida county election offices to see what information elections officials give to the public about the RCR process and voting with a criminal record. For many potential voters, county election boards are a significant source of information about voter eligibility. Unfortunately, the survey results demonstrate widespread confusion among elections offi cials about the eligibility of voters with criminal convictions and about virtually every aspect of the RCR process. Key findings of the survey show that:

• Nearly one third of all officials surveyed could not answer basic questions regarding the application process for restoration of civil rights.
• More than half of all elections officials surveyed did not know that individuals on felony parole or probation are barred from voting in Florida.
• Forty percent of elections officials surveyed incorrectly said that individuals with past felony convictions must produce their certificates of civil rights restoration with their voter registration applications; no such documentation is required to register to vote in Florida.
• Half of the elections officials surveyed did not know that payment of all outstanding restitution is a pre-condition for rights restoration.
• Fewer than half of those surveyed knew whether a Florida resident with a conviction in another state can register to vote in Florida. Not a single election official correctly stated that individuals with out-of-state convictions can apply for rights restoration in Florida if they reside in Florida and have not had their rights restored in their state of conviction.
• One-third of elections officials were unaware of the proper process for purging a voter with a felony conviction from the rolls.

Given the complexity of the 2007 clemency rules and the fact that county election supervisors received virtually no meaningful training on these new rules, it is no surprise that elections staff dispense incorrect information to potential voters. This phenomenon creates a critical problem for Florida's democracy and has the potential to disfranchise countless eligible voters. It also demonstrates that the 2007 Rules fail to address the larger problem of mass disfranchisement in Florida.

By lifting its voting rights ban, Florida can finally put an end to a shameful legacy of felon disfranchisement that became firmly entrenched during the Reconstruction Era as a means of disfranchising newly freed slaves. It is time for Florida to join the majority of states in the U.S. and several other democracies around the world^[3] by automatically restoring voting rights to all Floridians who have completed their terms of incarceration and supervision. A simplified RCR process would be easier for elections officials to administer and strengthen our state's democracy.

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