Charlie Crist restored the right to vote for 115,000 felons. Friend of Obama. Or Enemy of McCain?

[Heather MC]

Charlie Crist may be one of Obama's best friends in Florida- he restored the right to vote for 115,000 felons.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=...

Think he may be a little perturbed that McCoward passed him over for the VP slot?

Just sayin'
__________________

[rockymountaindem]

1. To quote my college roommate: "a little bit of A, a little bit of B"

Would it not be too late to get them registered, though?

[ButterflyBlood]

2. Honestly I think he's just doing the right thing regardless of politics

Crist doesn't strike me as one of the most insidious Republicans. I understand he cracked down on the electronic voting machines too. Maybe he's a rare Republican who cares about things other than his party winning.

[Heather MC]

13. Crist wants to be able to marry his gay lover one day, he's going to need dems voting!

Not that there's anything wrong with that

[BrklynLiberal]

3. They say revenge is a dish best served cold.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

4. Read the fine print in the OP link: Only 9,000 have had their voting rights restored, most likely

BY DESIGN. There's a backlog of 60,000 ex=felons whose cases need "investigation", and a 20 percent percent staffing CUT for those who could clear the backlog.

Many states have gotten headlines repeatedly over many years for "ending" felon disfranchisement, but the devil is in the details in every one of them.

From the FULL IHT link in http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=7552929&mesg_id=7552929 :

"Florida's felony voter registration law divides applicants into three categories based on the seriousness of their crimes: nonviolent criminals, the biggest group, need not apply for restoration of voting rights and just need to re-register.

Violent criminals, but not murderers or rapists, must apply to the clemency board. The board either grants those rights immediately or investigates on a case-by-case basis. The most violent criminals are subjected to a more rigorous investigation and must attend a hearing of the clemency board, which meets only four times a year, before their rights can be reinstated.

Despite the state's liberalization of felony voter procedures, only 9,000 out of a potential 112,000 former convicts in Florida registered to vote in the last year, according to a report last month in The Orlando Sentinel. Part of the reason is that thousands of notifications sent by the state went to the wrong addresses because of poor data and former prisoners' high mobility. Fred Schuknecht, the director of administration for the Florida Clemency Board, acknowledged in an interview that there was a backlog of 60,000 former felons who could potentially have their rights restored, but must first be reviewed by the agency.

Despite the fact that 3,500 newly released prisoners are added to the caseload every month, the Legislature cut 20 percent of the staff devoted to felony voter restoration cases, Schuknecht said. Further, Bell said that many former convicts shun attention, even if that means abdicating their voting rights. "You might want them to fill out the registration form, but they have an outstanding warrant," she said. "And in order to help them, I need to ask what their crimes are, but they might not want to say.""

[Sebastian Doyle]

5. Charlie went and got himself a bright orange tan so he could be VP

He even got engaged. To a woman. And McCain still dissed him. Not to mention Jeb left him with a horrible reputation for state government.

If I was Charlie, I wouldn't feel like I owed the Repuke establishment a damn thing.

[msallied]

11. Did anybody really actually buy the engagement story? lol

[Jennicut]

6. Christ is not a bad man considering he is a Rethug.

I think he did the right thing because he thought it was right. Thank God there are no Bushes in power in FL anymore.

[Hippo_Tron]

17. Crist seems like a half way decent Governor (although I don't live in Florida)

That being said I think that if he ever gets anywhere near national politics in the GOP (and I think he is aspiring to it), he will become a complete and total asshat like McCain has become. It's easy to be independent when you're just Governing a state. It's much harder to do when you're trying to appeal to the scum of the earth that is the Republican primary electorate.

[moobu2]

7. From the Florida Division Of Elections

8. You must be registered for at least 29 days before you can vote in an election.

LINK

[berni_mccoy]

9. Crist officially did this back in Aug... and before that he granted Clemency for this for over

120,000 ex-felons. That was back in April 2007. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-flffelons0830sbaug30,0,7309267.story

[ProgressiveEconomist]

12. Several additional reasons make Crist's "magnanimity" to ex-felons a sham--See post

#4 above.

[ecstatic]

8. depends. Were the felons former republican officials?

:shrug:

[berni_mccoy]

10. He's a friend of Voters.

[JimDandy]

14. On balance, this was a good thing he did - so thank you Crist. n/t

[ChiciB1]

15. The Article Has Been Removed!!! This is MY COUNTY... Herald Tibune...

Kathy Dent has run some VERY DUBIOUS elections, if not out right fraud!

We are asking all who live in this county to join us in contacting her to let her know we WON'T stand for it ONE MORE TIME!

Just found out today that SHE'S the only one who has the combination to the vault that holds the absentee votes, and she's running this time around!! This seems to be a VIOLATION of voter's right AND The Constitution. We are trying to gather enough people to makes calls to her office to give her FAIR warning that we are watching and watching with laser beam eyes! We WILL stand tall in front of THE OFFICE if things get screwed up again. Currently she's running BEHIND Barry Sullivan, but after out Unity Bridge Walk this past week-end it's obvious this county is ready to TURN BLUE!!!

If you want to help and call her office, please PM me! I'm LOSING SLEEP OVER THIS, it's almost 3:00 AM and I have to work tomorrow!!

Thanks!!

[Hippo_Tron]

16. I think that Crist has a genuine personal stake in making Florida's elections not look like a joke

Remember that Katherine Harris had her ass handed to her in the '06 Senate race largely because she was so unpopular from the 2000 fiasco. Both statewide and nationally, Crist wants to appear like an honest and competent leader who can properly run Florida's elections.

Besides, McCain is going down and everybody knows it. There's no reason for Crist to pull any favors for a guy who is going to lose no matter what happens in Florida.

[flvegan]

18. Protecting his future in politics in Florida.

He's a lot like Ah-nold in this. Sometimes does crazy shit you'd not expect.

[ChiciB1]

19. I Just Want Help With Sarasota County RIGHT NOW!! This County Is

NASTY-UGLY!! They know NO BOUNDS!! Please help us!!!

[ChiciB1]

20. One More Thing... If You Do Contact Me... I Won't Be Home Until After

Five PM tomorrow!

Let's form a coalition THIS TIME!!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

21. He Is O K For A Republican

~

[Kahuna]

22. Crist probably wants to run in 2012. I wouldn't be surprised. He's

very appealing in a lot of ways.

[No Elephants]

23. I don't get it. Is the implication of this that felons vote Dem?