Florida’s attorney general and chief financial officer have both called on public agencies to investigate former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s effort to help felons pay off legal debts so they can vote on Nov. 3.
Bloomberg and his associates raised $16 million in coordination with the nonprofit Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) so that close to 32,000 residents who had felony convictions can vote. Bloomberg has also said he is donating $100 million to help Democrat Joe Biden win Florida’s electoral votes.
A statewide constitutional amendment that passed in 2018 gave certain Floridians who were convicted of felonies and completed their sentences a path to regain their voting rights. But a state law enacted last year requires felons to pay off all their fines, fees and other legal obligations before they can cast ballots.
State CFO Jimmy Patronis penned a letter to the Florida Elections Commission that urged the panel to investigate whether the former New York mayor’s donation to help felons pay legal debts is an illegal maneuver to influence the outcome of the state’s presidential vote.
“Reports that the failed presidential candidate is spending tens of millions of dollars on restitution for certain registered voters doesn’t smell right to me,” he said in a prepared statement. “Clearly, Bloomberg is using his money and power to tilt the upcoming election in November. If he wants to make a political donation, there’s a process, but hiding behind voting-rights groups appears to circumvent Florida law.”
An FRRC press release also contains language that Patronis says can be interpreted as an appeal to vote against President Trump in November.
In a letter to the FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement commissioner, state Attorney General Ashley Moody said that Gov. Ron DeSantis had asked her office to look into Bloomberg’s actions.
The letter noted that Florida law makes directly or indirectly giving or promising anything of value to another person “in casting his or her vote” illegal.
“After preliminarily reviewing this limited public information, it appears further investigation is warranted,” Moody stated, referring to a Sept. 22 Washington Post article as well as state and federal statutes.
But Florida Rep. Joseph Geller (D-Aventura) said the idea that the Bloomberg donation to felons is illegal lacks merit.
“It seems to me that it is a misreading of what the current law is and what the law provides for,” Geller told the Florida Record. “... Nobody is being told how to vote. They’re just rendered eligible to vote.”
The state representative expects federal court litigation over this issue to ultimately support plaintiffs, who argue that tying the ability to vote to paying legal financial obligations amounts to a poll tax.