TALLAHASSEE – A Florida state law that dictates released felons have to pay court fines and fees in order to vote in elections is pitting the state’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis against critics who contend the financial obligation amounts to a penalty on the poor and a poll tax.
“As I indicated in my opening statement, if you are rich, if you are white, and if you are male in Florida, you have a much higher probability of being immune from Senate Bill 7066’s onerous financial requirements,” Nancy Abudu, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, told the Florida Record. “ The evidence we will enter into the record in the coming days will demonstrate to the Court that SB 7066 is unconstitutional.”
A Florida constitutional amendment requires residents with felony convictions pay off all their legal debts before casting a ballot.
DeSantis
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According to a report in CNN, convicted felons in Florida had their voting rights restored with a constitutional amendment passed in November 2018.
Named the “Voting Rights Restoration for Felons Initiative,” Amendment 4 was passed by the state’s voters by a margin of 63% to 35.4 % (exceeding a 60% threshold margin). The amendment allows convicted felons who complete all the requirements of their sentence the right to vote.
After Amendment 4 went into effect in January 2019, the GOP-led Florida legislature passed and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed, a bill that clarified the law’s terms, including legal financial obligations such as fines, fees and restitution.
Groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center see this as a the equivalent of a poll tax and have challenged the governor.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle opened a trial on April 27 to decide the matter.
Hinkle issued an injunction against Senate Bill 7066 and said he intends to approve class certification to plaintiffs in the underlying trial over the felon voting dispute. The judge noted two detailed reports he said showed that thousands of felons in Florida can't afford to pay the proposed legal obligations.
“Still others are unable to pay because the amount owed is out of reach even for a person who is not indigent,” Hinkle wrote in the April 7 order certifying the class and subclass.
Abudu told the Florida Record the 11th Circuit Court unanimously ruled that her clients’ right to vote cannot be conditioned on the amount of money they possess, and the 11th Circuit declined to hear Gov. DeSantis’ appeal.
“Floridians who voted for Amendment 4 in 2018 deserve to have the full promise of the Amendment realized, and Floridians previously locked out of the democratic process for generations deserve to finally have their voices included,” Abudu said.