Floridians Flip a Thumbs Up For Restoration of Felon Voting Rights
Amendment 4, a measure to restore voting rights to most felons, passed by nearly two-thirds of voters. At FAU, some students had no idea Florida was one of few states where felons had their voting rights revoked.
On Election Day, 12 amendments were on the ballot in Florida.
But there was only one that was watched nationwide: Amendment 4. It passed with 64 percent of people voting yes and 36 percent voting no. This amendment will restore the voting rights to most former felons — except those that have murder convictions and sexual offenses — in the next upcoming election.
In the past couple of years, this amendment has caught the attention of 799,000 voters who signed a petition by Floridians for Fair Democracy to place it on the ballot.
Former candidate for Florida governor, Andrew Gillum, told an audience at Florida Atlantic University the week before the election why he endorsed the amendment.
“If you have done your time and you pay your debt to society, you ought to be able to re-enter society and have your constitutional right to vote and right to work,” said Gillum. “That is not what I envisioned.”
At FAU, students have been aware of this amendment being on the ballot since last November when “For Our Future” hosted a panel in which ex-felons Roderick Kemp and Geraldine Harriel shared their story.
Cristian Tello, a senior majoring in political science, was on his way to Washington D.C. and New York in the National Model UN Competition as part of the Leon Charney Diplomacy Program at FAU, explained why it was a good idea for Amendment 4 to pass in Florida.
While packing his bag the night before, Tello said, “with the passing of it, hopefully it will take the American judicial process and American penitentiary system and put it in a more restorative justice sense because once a felon serves their time, they’ve had to pay and learned their lesson.”
“Going to prison, which in itself is already a huge price they pay…will help people start to think more of a restorative justice approach.”
Florida was one in four states left that still had a lifetime ban on felons for voting. Before this, there was a clemency board which a convicted felon who served their time would have to wait seven years after they finished their sentence to go and apply for the clemency board.
Gasline Journalier, a junior majoring in psychology, knows what it is like to know someone not having the right to vote.
“My cousin is still on parole right now,” said Journalier. “Before he could vote, but as of now, he has to wait until he is off of parole to see.”
As a resident of North Lauderdale, Journalier believes that the next presidential election will be a lot more liberal. “I feel like it’s more lower-income people … they would be more toward Democrats. Ex-felons want more help, reform and, welfare.”
The clemency board is comprised of the governor and his cabinet. Former felons have said that the cabinet can be arbitrary in their decisions on whether or not they would restore the right to vote because the governor ultimately decides the overall rule in court.
“I feel that the ban on voting rights for a convicted felons is a little absurd,” said Tello. “If you look at the numbers, disproportionately minorities are affected more.”
Not everyone at FAU knew about the amendment in the first place.
“I didn’t know too much about Amendment 4 before I started my Campaign and Elections class this semester,” said Kim Moya, a junior majoring in political science. “I didn’t know that ex-felons didn’t have their right to vote.”
Moya ended up voting yes on the ballot because there are a lot of people not being represented and the decisions on their behalf wouldn’t benefit them if they didn’t have a say about what’s going on.
Around 1.4 million people who are convicted felons but have completed their sentences, will have their right restore to them in time for the presidential election in 2020. The greatest challenge now: moving bureaucratic roadblocks to the amendment’s immediate implementation.
