The following is an announcement about an event talking about Amendment 4 – for those in the area it’s a good opportunity to speak out about registrants being excluded from the amendment.
The South Florida Reentry Task Force is taking the initiative to unite and mobilize religious communities to work together to increase civic participation among those who were previously disenfranchised. We would like to invite you, your community, and congregation to join us for our first gathering. We will discuss the current status of Amendment 4, and the next steps to take to engage and reintegrate returning citizens (persons formerly convicted). This is the first of what we hope will be a collaborative effort to host events at various institutions throughout South Florida leading up to the 2020 election. We believe that faith communities should be at the forefront of these efforts of inclusion of all citizens into the life of our community. We are interested in partnering with community leaders who are willing to host future events.
Now, we would love for you to join us on Thursday, September 19th for a discussion with Desmond Meade and Wayne E. Rawlins regarding how to mobilize faith communities for efforts on Florida rights restoration and the full implementation of Amendment 4. Desmond Meade led the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) to a historic victory in 2018 with the successful passage of Amendment 4, a grassroots citizen’s initiative which restored voting rights to over 1.4 million Floridians with past felony convictions. Wayne E. Rawlins is the Lead Facilitator for South Florida Reentry Task Force that assists returning citizens with successful reentry during and after incarceration.
We will meet at the Islamic Center of South Florida, located at 1641 NW 15th Street, in Pompano Beach, FL 33069. We will conduct voter registration on cite and in the community from 4-6:30 pm.There will be attorneys on-site to answer questions and offer assistance to Returning Citizens who have legal financial obligations that may potentially impact their ability to vote. There will also be a food pantry and school supplies distribution available for the community from 5:30-7:30 pm. Followed by a conversation with Desmond and Wayne at 7:30 pm.
The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will also be served for attendees.
For more information or if you have a service or resources that you would like to offer to the community at this event please contact:
Marq Mitchell at: (407) 307-9492 or [email protected]
Wayne E. Rawlins at: [email protected]
Although I am in no way agreeing with being excluded from restoration, I do however understand the reasoning to get the law passed. Excluding the dreaded sex offenders and murderers made passing the law more palatable to voters who were on the fence about allowing ex-felons to vote. It was a small victory but I think our focus should be on getting off the doggone illegal registries so we can all heal and move on with our lives. Some of us have not had even so much as a traffic ticket in over 30 years.
Jack, you are so correct. If we, RSO’s, have to forgo the right to vote temporarily in order to restore the vote to many, it is a worthy price to pay. With public education our turn will come. When it does it will be so sweet an opportunity.
I would love to be able to attend but on the 19th…and thru 22nd I will be involved with the Via de Cristo men’s weekend team. It is a 24/7 obligation. Excluding RSO’s from voting is totally baseless, since they are tax paying citizens. Such laws or exclusions exist because people are put into positions of authority and they believe to prove their worth they must do something that looks good but is based on mythical and false information. The voting public in general is clueless.
Keep up the good fight, keep the faith and keep spreading the good news.
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
Thessalonians 5:11