Florida Supreme Court rules convicted felons must pay fees before voting
[NOTE: Persons required to register still can not get their voting rights back]
Florida’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that convicted felons must pay all fees related to their sentences before voting. The court decided in its ruling that “all terms of sentence” includes not only terms of a person’s imprisonment and supervision, but also fines and other obligations imposed as part of a punishment.
Two-thirds of those whose voting rights would have been restored, will not be able to vote until they pay their fees. In many cases, that will mean never.
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https://reason.com/2020/01/18/sex-offender-laws-are-broken-these-women-are-working-to-fix-them/
Unrelated to this topic but is an important read. God bless these women and FAC and everyone in the fight.
The State of Florida is determined to maintain their second class citizens as much as possible.
This is why we need to support Bernie Sanders for president. His policy position is that the right to vote should not be abridged. The thing is this: if you are paying taxes, not having the natural right to vote is “taxation without representation.” This one of the very fundamental principles in the establishment of our country. Aside from voting fraud crimes, the denial of right to vote has absolutely no nexus with any convicted wrongdoing.
Frankly, I think this is a good ruling. Let me explain why based on my own experience. Upon my conviction, which I’m still fighting, I was hit with some fines and imprisonment. I paid my fines, but was placed on lifetime supervision after incarceration upon early release for being a model inmate. So, I think the drug dealers and white collar criminals should have to pay their entire debt if I have to pay mine for life…al because I chose to fight.
I blame A4 drafters for using weasely language to make it popular. The Florida Rights Restoration Commission set a trap for themselves and should be embarrassed.
I agree. They were naive to believe that the Floriduh abusers of power, aka legislators, would do the right thing.
First off, I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I have been a Republican all my life, what with the Republicans in Florida doing all they can to keep taxpaying ex-felons from voting. Punishment for offenses is usually consisting of two parts…physical and fiscal. Once the physical part is over, the offender can hopefully find employment and get on with providing for life’s necessities and taking care of the fiscal obligations. This is not an easy obstacle to overcome and takes time…all along the ex-offender is paying taxes. The politicians who would try to keep this ex-offender from voting have no problem spending the ex-offenders tax payments. The situation brings to mind “No taxation without representation”. No vote, no representation. But then when have most of today’s politicians let the nation’s founding principles get in the way of their efforts to try to impress the voting public? I suspect most legislators are not even aware of this principle. I truly hope that one day my reason for embarrassment will be a thing of the past as my guiding principles are conservative in nature.
Good Day Captain!
Thank you for your service to Our Country
My father is a retired E-8 USMC!
And Thank you for your commentaries…much appreciated!