Iâm no expert, but maybe I can help. The âimplementationâ for registering convicted felons who have served their time is the same as for any other voter: have them fill out a card and sign it, and put them on the rolls. Easy peasy!
Unless youâre a Republican. They love regulation.
Is âAssholeryâ a word?
Amazing story. Didnât know âFloridaâ was capable of thwarting voters. Must be the trees. Or maybe the algae washing ashore. Just the other day a friend of mine was trying to register in Miami and the earth sort of rose up and thwarted him. âThatâs Florida for you,â he said. âItâs just a place thatâs hostile to voters, especially if theyâre black. Because theyâre all racists down hereâthe swamps, the roads, you name it. Nothing to be done about it. Democrats and Republicans equally helpless and blameless.â
I guess the little people donât know whatâs good for them. Itâs so heartening to see the proponents of smaller government reach out to complicate through government delay a voter approved measure they donât like. Why itâs almost as if theyâre telling voters that they probably should just leave everything to those in this government because theyâll take care of it, and who cares about voters without deep pockets anyway.
Hypocritical scum suckers strike again.
Well of course they are ,itâs a Republican majority state
Republicanâs donât give a shit about what the âVotersâ want , itâs an impediment to their plan to enrich the rich
This is a State where Ex Governor Voldemort spent 63 million of his own money for a Senate seat that pays 200k
Altruistic ? I think not
Scott Maxwell summed it up well in a recent column
Florida legislators have a clear track record when it comes to doing what voters tell them.
They donât.
You passed the âeducation lottery.â
They turned the funding into a shell game and left Florida schools among the worst funded in America.
You passed Fair Districts.
They spent more than $10 million of your taxes on lawyers, trying to fight your will.
You passed an environmental amendment.
They ignored you again â and then acted surprised when toxic green algae choked the stateâs waterways.
You passed a medical marijuana amendment.
Yet two years later, you have a better chance of scoring a dime bag at any local high school than a chronic-pain sufferer has of getting smokable weed at a legitimate pharmacy.
Basically, Florida legislators follow orders about as well as a pet rock.
They donât care what voters say. They donât care about the Constitution. They just do as they please ⌠and usually get re-elected.
So itâs not surprising that, on the heels of yet another voter mandate â to restore voting rights to former felons â thereâs concern that lawmakers are once again dragging their feet.
Amendment 4 was clear. It said that once people have paid their debt to society, they get back their right to vote.
Thatâs how it works in most states. But in Florida, the governor and Cabinet force former felons to personally beg them for permission â and restore civil rights to fewer than 1 percent of former felons each year.
Amendment 4 changes that. It automatically restores voting rights for everyone except those convicted of murder or sex crimes. And it passed overwhelmingly â 65 percent to 35 percent.
Yet Rick Scottâs Secretary of State Ken Detzner recently said he thinks he needs âdirectionâ from legislators before taking action. And legislators are hemming and hawing
Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, told the Miami Herald: âI still have some questions.â
With due respect, senator: No one cares about your questions.
That was, in fact, the entire point of this amendment â to circumvent the Legislature â because you guys refused to do your job.
Legal experts and government watchdogs told you to fix your broken system. But you refused. So activists mounted a Herculean effort to take this issue directly to the people.
You Guys Lost
So now, your job isnât to think. Or obstruct. Itâs simply to follow orders. A dog can do that. Surely if you put your minds to it, you can match the instruction-following prowess of a Labradoodle.
To explain the questions he had about implementing the amendment, Baxley asked: âDo they have to meet probation? Did they complete their debt to society or not?"
I have wonderful news for you, Senator! The answer to your questions about the amendment arenât top secret. Theyâre right there in the amendment.
The ballot language was only two sentences. And the first one specifically said that âvoting rights shall be restored upon completion of all terms of sentence including parole or probation.â
Completion of âall terms.â And yes, that includes probation. Isnât it neat how reading the laws will sometimes provide answers to questions you have about those laws?
Backers of the amendment wrote it as clearly and simply as possible. The goal, explained American Civil Liberties Union of Florida president Howard Simon, was to make the amendment âself-executing.â In other words: No meddling necessary.
Sure, there are a few things the state must figure out, including how to redo voter-registration forms and make sure the new rules are applied consistently statewide without room for differing interpretations from different elections supervisors.
But state officials shouldâve figured this out long ago. Theyâve known this vote was coming for nearly a year.
When the Sentinelâs Steve Lemongello recently asked Speaker Jose Oliva if the House had any plans to âslow-walkâ the implementation of Amendment 4, Oliva seemed offended, saying: âThe idea that we would slow walk or attempt to change an amendment to the constitution passed by the people of the state of Florida is inconsistent with our principles.â
It may be inconsistent with your professed principles, Mr. Speaker. But itâs darn-sure consistent with your bodyâs track record.
And Iâve got a whole slew of underfunded schools, polluted waterways and Fair Districts legal bills to prove it.
If legislators really want to prove they care about the votersâ will, they will stop yapping and start listening.
It would be a refreshing change.
In the end, this dysfunction is not going to be fixed until Florida voters start voting for the correct politicians and not just the correct policies. Is it that they simply donât believe the Democrats are involved with those policies? Or is it cluelessness about how implacably opposed to those policies the Republicans are? Either way, itâs a marketing and education challenge for the Florida Democratic Party.
Read the last graf and youâll see that if someone has enough money for a lawyer to check their status they have no problems with registering.
If I were a florida court with appropriate jurisdiction, I would rule that any registration form signed before all parts of a sentence were completed would count as intention to register, with actual registration delayed until the corrections department gave the all clear. And that anyone in that situation would be so informed by mail within two weeks of submitting their form.
FL came within a whisker of voting Dem for both Governor and Senator. We wouldnât be talking about these implementation issues had Gillum been elected Governor. The polls said it was more likely to happen than not. All these voters in the panhandle and the I-4 exurbs who keep voting against their interests need to be engaged in serious conversations about why they vote the way they do, like a sociological experiment. One thing that I hope we could do in the future is to get more people to think of politics as about getting things done and less about an arena to fight imaginary culture wars. Thatâs more of a long-term thing.
On a short-term tactical basis, in addition to not leaving votes on the table, Dems have to recruit a lot of younger Cuban Dems to have some âkeep it realâ conversations with Cuban Americans who helped Scott and DeSantis get to 40% in Miami-Dade County. That number should ideally be below 35% and really below 30%. FL GOPers are ruining the property values, quality of life of South Floridians. FL GOPers advocate the racist, white nationalist policies that treat POC as 2nd class citizens. There is no reason for Cuban Americans to vote Republican and every reason for that voting bloc to support center-left Dems.
THESE FUCKERS!!! Theyâre just nonstop, all day everyday assholes! I wish I could count on the opposition party to actually stand up to these assholes and shove their Weâre the Party of Law and Order so far up their asses theyâll vomit pocket sized constitutions. If Dems canât use all this obstruction of the will of the people against these cretins they (dems) deserve every shellacking they get.
Three words: public interest litigation.
The Republican plan to win elections going forward is to stop people from voting.
I voted for it and sooner or later itâs going to be. The thing passed with 2/3 of the people in favor. Itâs legal and does not violate the State or national Constitutions. So it will be. They can slow walk if they choose but the next election is 2 years away and they canât walk that slow. No Court is going to uphold the govementâs attempts to bypass the will of the people.
To my fellow Floridians. If you want steak for diner donât buy some US prime but hire a vegan chef. If you want to restore the franchise donât for for that and also vote for a Gov. that will stymie it. Also conchâs donât vote for assholes like DeSantis. Everyoneâs bitching down here but hate to tell youâŚyouâve been voting GOP for 2 decades ( NO Florida is not a swing state ) so you might think about a change.
This is pure bullshit!
An AMENDMENT that included the language on how it will be applied. This is nothing but a LYIN excuse for not moving forward.
I knew this would happened. Now state officials want to wait 2 years? CHEATERS! GOPers are nothing but LIARS and CHEATERS!
People need to start asking themselves, do I want to know the TRUTH or do I want to be told LIES by your politicians!
Isnât it amazing just how often the self-professed âfreedom lovingâ Republicans go out of their way to squash all the freedoms that might be excercised by people who arenât rich white men? Itâs almost as if this has been a long-term strategy or somethingâŚOh waitâŚ
I live here (central Florida) and there are some seriously stupid racist mugwumps here.
They elect same
Itâs changing and as above there is still residual from the Republican Gerrymander
Most of them are all Mah Granpappy Voted Republican, Mah Pappy voted Republican and Ahhm votinâ Republican. Fever Swamp Trump supporters
Tatooâs and cowboy shit very popular
Dental Hygene not so much
Part of equation is the Villages retirement community. Many Midwesterners and Faux Demographic Redux They hop on their golf carts and vote 60/40 Republican across the board
Hereâs the upcoming schedule for those who want to keep track:
January 8 - well-selected ex-felon attempts to register and is denied
January 9 - lawsuit filed by public interest groups
Until then, thereâs really nothing that can be done.
Itâs been working obviously , thatâs why they do it
Maybe once Trump is sent to prison and released to live at Mar-a-lardo Florida will move on the approved amendment so he can vote. Until then, the Florida GOP will slow roll it because they hate voting by anyone who isnât a Republican.