Page 3 - Florida Sentinel 7-5-19

Feature
State NAACP Joins Lawsuit Over Felons Voting Issue
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
Last Friday, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill that affects the voting rights of convicted felons. The bill states that before felons can vote, they must satisfy all court ordered fees.
On November 6, 2018, voters passed Amendment 4, which re- stored the rights of most convicted felons. As a result of the governor’s signing the bill requiring the pay- ment of all outstanding debts, sev- eral individuals have filed a lawsuit.
The Florida State Conference of Branches and Youth Units of the NAACP is an organizational plain- tiff in the federal lawsuit. The law- suit was filed on June 28th by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), and Brennan Center for Jus- tice at NYU Law.
State Rep. Fentrice Driskell said, “ The impact of this bill is dev- astating because Amendment 4 truly was supposed to be a vehicle
STATE REP. FENTRICE DRISKELL
to allow returning citizens to have their voting rights restored without having to go through the clemency process, which can be arduous and slow-moving.
“The challenge is that now those financial obligations included in the returning citizen’s sentence must be satisfied before the beneficial effects of Amendment 4 kick in. When the bill was up for debate in committee,
STATE ATTORNEY ANDREW WARREN
we heard testimony from individu- als who formerly had been con- victed of felonies who explained that their restitution was in the hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars, staggering fig- ures that would be difficult for most people to repay within a lifetime.
“This new law flies in the face of what over 64% of Florida voters asked for when passing Amend-
ment 4. It treats people like second class citizens, but a person’s ability to repay restitution and other finan- cial obligations should have no bearing on their worth as a human being or on their ability to vote.”
Andrew Warren, Hillsbor- ough County State Attorney said, “This bill was supposed to be an im- plementing bill and the legislature was to provide the framework. Thre was no need to undermine it by re- quiring all fines and fees be paid be- fore the person can vote.
“I was an early backer of Amend- ment 4 and I have been lobbying for the state to pass it. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure people who have paid their debts can vote in Hillsborough County.”
Attorney Warren further said there is currently no check and bal- ance method in place to determine who has satisfied their debts and who has not. “It will be very difficult to track fees. It’s not clear how this is going to work,” Attorney War- ren said.
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