The Florida Executive Clemency Board voted on Wednesday to rescind a 2007 change which made it easier for people with nonviolent felony convictions to have their civil rights restored. Currently, people with non-violent felony convictions who have completed their sentences are able to begin the process to have their rights restored.
But, the Clemency Board approved a proposal put forward by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to reverse the current process. Under the new proposal, people with non-violent felony convictions, after serving their sentences, will go through a waiting period before applying to have their rights restored and this could take up to five years.
The NAACP, ACLU and Florida League of Women Voters, among others, have objected to proposal, including the undue haste with which it is being pursued and the minimal discussion that has taken place. There is great concern too, if the Clemency Board votes in favor of the new proposal, Florida will return to the pre-2007 process where rehabilitated citizens will once again be disenfranchised.
The League said it was strongly opposed to the proposal, particularly as it relates to voting rights.
“Floridians who have completed their sentences and are once again living and working among the public deserve a say in their local, statement and federal governments,” the League said in a statement.
The League added that “asking citizens to pay taxes while inhibiting their right to vote amounts to a form of ‘taxation without representation.'”
In 2007, former Governor Charlie Crist, in one of his most far reaching proposals, changed the rules so that felons got their voting rights automatically restored, once they had paid their debt to society.
When convicted felons lose the right to elect Judges in Florida, that’s a good thing.
There’s nothing wrong with increasing the penalty phase for convicted felons, let them have to prove themselves worthy again since they were the ones that chose to violate the community standards and break to the law.