I was almost going to say that I’d rather live next to a felon or a sex offender than a Republican. And then I realized that there is a substantially high probability of overlap.
And you thought Florida was a swing state. Those fuckers in Tallahassee spend their time suppressing the will of the voters .
This is why we go to referendums in the first place
They did it with Fair Districts
They did it with Medical Pot
They’re doing it with Voter suppression
God I hate them all
If we can’t win the referendum, we’ll pass a law saying we won the referendum.
Overriding a Florida Constitutional Amendment?
All in a days work for Trump’s GOP.
They subsidize local sugar but claim to hate socialism.
How DARE you insult the brilliance atrocity of the Poll Tax! Why, I will stand here and argue about the Poll Tax ALL DAY if need be to get you to forget that it’s not really the issue at hand. GOOD DAY, SIR.
More work for Attorneys and the courts. This obscenity of a House bill, if passed, will have to be challenged.
“Somebody who is well off could vote and somebody who is poor could not, and that is not the intent behind Amendment 4,” FFJC’s Thomas said.
Clearly, that is what the Republicans in Florida want.
The people be damned!
Seriously, this flouting of a decision approved by 65 percent of Florida voters–Democrats, Republicans and independents–should be a major issue for the Democratic presidential candidate next year. (And Democrats down the ticket as well.) Ignoring the will of the people is not a local issue, even when local issues are involved.
“To suggest that this is a poll tax inherently diminishes the atrocity of what a poll tax actually was,” committee chairman Jamie Grant ® said during Tuesday’s hearing, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “All we’re doing is following statute.”
Were poll taxes not statutes?
If this is made sufficiently vague and complex … Maybe ex-felons can be entangled in technicalities in a way that could enable them to be incarcerated again!
Absolutely right. Just a nice bullet-point list of the bullshit in Wisconsin would be enough. The governor in Michigan was enough of a mensch not to do anything of the stuff the GOP legislature was begging him before they all left.
Crooked Florida Repug legislators = crooked Wisconsin Repug legislators = crooked NC Repug legislators = Georgia Repug legislators = …
No surprise here, the Republicans fear all those possible voters coming into the pool because they assume that all the people in jail are black and therefore Democrats. They will do everything they can to tie this up past 2020 so that no one gets to take advantage of their newly restored right to vote. It may take another vote on an amendment, with very specific details about the matter, to force the Republicans into line.
It’s stuff like this that makes it clear the current iteration of the Republican party has no business running government at any level, they are only n it for themselves and their power instead of being honest representatives of the people.
I think I see a trend here…
Well, somebody has to protect our democracy from all these voters.
So, this is a poll tax, which was made illegal by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (the part that still survives). As I read the legislation, the fees are not payable by the ex-felons when they are/were released, or when they want to use any state services, such as getting a drivers license. They are only due and owing when the person wants to register to vote. Sounds like a poll tax to me.
Also, these fees are being imposed for conduct that occurred years ago? Sounds like ex post facto, as well. Can’t wait for the judiciary to get hold of this.
I like it when Republicans make it this easy to challenge unconstitutional (in Florida) laws. The Dems should have an ACLU lawsuit ready to be stapled to the final bill.
A new amendment is going to be needed to restore ex-felons voting rights that explicitly forbids this shit I expect.