Fl. Fed Ct strikes down rigged system for restoring felons voting rights

[laserhaas]

Last edited Sat Feb 3, 2018, 01:15 PM - Edit history (1)

Posted in - Citizens for Criminal Justice - by Ken Abraham, on Feb 3, 2018 in Featured, Other Issues

Ken’s Comments:

This is as it should be. Surely the U S Supreme Court will agree when it gets this case. Why are former inmates barred from voting in so many states? Because they know what goes on in our prisons and would “vote the rascals out” regarding those opposing prison reform!

Florida’s system of barring felons from voting unless they receive executive clemency is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Thursday. In a sharply worded ruling, Judge Mark Walker of the Northern District of Florida said a clemency board with “unfettered discretion in restoring voting rights” violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Walker blasted Florida’s process at length, writing that it makes felons “kowtow” to a board that can accept or deny their application for any reason. “A person convicted of a crime may have long ago exited the prison cell and completed probation. Her voting rights, however, remain locked in a dark crypt,” Walker wrote. “Only the state has the key — but the state has swallowed it. Only when the state has digested and passed that key in the unforeseeable future, maybe in five years, maybe in 50, … does the state, in an ‘act of mercy’ unlock the former felon’s voting rights from its hiding place.”

The ruling throws into limbo the status of 1.5 million ex-felons eligible to seek the restoration of their rights. The judge required the state and the nine ex-convicts who brought the lawsuit to file motions by Feb. 12 on how to fix the rights restoration system.

Gov. Rick Scott’s office said he was reviewing the ruling but would “continue to defend this process in the court

.”


http://www.citizensforcriminaljustice.net/federal-court-strikes-floridas-system-restoring-felons-voting-rights/

UPDATE

WaPo article on this issue

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/02/02/floridas-ban-on-ex-felons-voting-is-unconstitutional-and-biased-federal-judge-rules/?utm_term=.45e1d4e2ff52&__twitter_impression=true

Link to tweet

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	They did their time, let them vote
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[MichMan]

1. Should those currently in prison also have the right to vote also?

Why do people accept them losing their right to vote ?

[sarah FAILIN]

2. This was a huge issue in the Al special election

We have a similar law which revokes voting rights for something like crimes of moral turpitude... not sure of the wording but they didn't define what those crimes originally were. Everyone lost their rights in prison. Recently they defined moral turpitude and some people were allowed to register to vote again. Roy Moore was PISSED that current inmates were allowed to vote.
Just because they are in jail doesn't mean they are not citizens imo.

[petronius]

3. Yes, I'd say incarcerated persons should be allowed to vote

Unless, maybe, they're in jail for treason or something very similar...

[laserhaas]

4. Link to WaPo story apropos

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/02/02/floridas-ban-on-ex-felons-voting-is-unconstitutional-and-biased-federal-judge-rules/?utm_term=.45e1d4e2ff52&__twitter_impression=true