Florida Voting Rights Report - Felony Disfranchisement In Florida

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Written by Muslima Lewis, ACLU Florida

I. Felony Disfranchisement in Florida

Nationally, an estimated 5.3 million Americans have lost their right to vote due to a felony offense.^[4] Over 20% of the nation's disfranchised citizens live in Florida, more than in any other state. Close to 950,000 people in Florida have completed all terms of incarceration and supervision, but are still denied the right to vote due to past felony convictions.^[5]

Florida's voting ban remains one of the most draconian in the country. In addition to losing their voting rights, people with felony convictions in Florida also lose the right to sit on a jury and hold public office. Further, in Florida, people whose rights have not been restored are disqualified from holding dozens of state-issued licenses for occupations such as automobile dealer, physical therapist, and electrical contractor.

Nationwide and in Florida, felony disfranchisement disproportionately affects African-Americans and Latinos. This is not surprising given the cumulative impact of racial disparities at each point in the criminal justice system.^[6] In Florida, 18.82% of the African American voting age population is disfranchised.^[7] Given the current rates of incarceration for Black men nationwide, it is estimated that 3 in 10 Black men will be disfranchised at some time in their lives.^[8]

In Florida, restoration of civil rights is wholly discretionary. Civil rights are restored only through the executive clemency process.^[9] The Board of Executive Clemency (composed of the Governor and the three Cabinet members) establishes the rules by which civil rights may be restored. An individual's voting and other civil rights may be restored only with the approval of the governor and two other members of the Board of Executive Clemency.

The Rules of Executive Clemency reflect the political inclinations of the current administration, so they can change significantly over time. For example, under the leadership of Governor Ruben Askew in 1975, the rules were revised to provide that civil rights restoration would be virtually automatic for all Florida citizens upon completion of supervision.^[10] Over the following years, Florida's clemency rules have become progressively more restrictive and have disfranchised a growing number of Floridians.^[11]

This restrictive trend changed in 2007, when Governor Charlie Crist, with the support of two other members of the Board of Executive Clemency, implemented reforms with the goal of easing the civil rights restoration process for certain individuals with past felony convictions. The 2007 Rules are an improvement over the rules adopted under recent administrations. Between April 5, 2007, and January 28, 2009, close to 135,000 people had their civil rights restored, compared to an average annual rate of just over 5,000 restorations per year prior to 2007.^[12]

Nonetheless, the April 2007 Rules still erect significant barriers to the franchise for far too many Floridians. Many Floridians, perhaps hundreds of thousands, still have not had their civil rights restored under the more streamlined RCR process available to people with nonviolent felony convictions. Many of these people were locked out of the historic November 2008 election despite the assurances of Governor Crist and state elections offi cials that the 2007 Clemency Rules would result in "automatic approval" of cases involving past convictions for nonviolent felonies. Many other Florida citizens are not notified when their civil rights have been restored, so they mistakenly believe they are ineligible to vote. Still more Floridians are de facto disfranchised because they receive inaccurate information about their voting rights from elections officials, as described in detail below. The resultis the disfranchisement of a significant portion of Florida's voting-age population.

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