LWV of Florida reaching those who care about restoring felon voting rights

This November, Florida voters will be presented with Amendment 4—a ballot amendment that would restore voting rights to people who were convicted of a felony offense, but have since served their sentences, completed parole or probation, and paid restitution (except for cases of murder or sexual assault charges).

Under current Florida law, anyone who has been convicted of a felony loses their right to vote with little to no hope of restoration of their eligibility to vote. Unless one receives a full or conditional pardon, or can successfully appeal to the governor, their voting rights are permanently taken away. Under the current system, the governor hears less than 300 cases to restore eligibility to vote per year. Given the almost 11,000 applications already filed, the last applicant in line today, will have to wait 36 years to even be heard. Amendment 4 could restore the eligibility to vote to 1.5 million people in Florida—more than 10% of the state’s voting-age citizens.

The League of Women Voters of Florida (LWVFL) has been hard at work to make sure voters know what’s at stake. LWVFL is organizing forums to educate voters about their ballots across the state, collecting names and addresses of those who signed Amendment 4 petitions who were not actually registered to vote, and are following up to make sure signers are registered to vote. By sorting through Supervisor of Elections’ records, reclaiming addresses off petitions, and through postcard writing efforts, League volunteers throughout the state and nation have reached over 32,000 unregistered voters with plans to reach even more!