Campaign Action
Nearly 1.5 million Second Chances to be exact. And if we are being precise, 1 million registered voters in Florida need to Say Yes to Second Chances for nearly 1.5 million Florida residents who can not sign the Voting Restoration Constitutional Amendment petition themselves because they are not legally able to register to vote because they have been convicted of a felony.
That is why this campaign to restore the ability to vote in Florida has devoted leaders, good organization, and a high likelihood of success. Last week, I met with those leaders and volunteers and learned about the plan to successfully restore the ability to vote for nearly 1.5 million Floridians. Please read below the fold to learn about the leaders, strategies to win, and challenges they've faced to make this possible.
Michael Orlando was incarcerated with a felony many years ago and when he got out he started a business. This is the best option for those convicted of a felony in Florida it would seem, since it's pretty much impossible to get hired with a felony conviction there. The problem though for Michael is that he can't lease a storefront or an office space, even though his company does over $1,000,000.00 in business per year, because he has been convicted of a felony. He also has trouble applying for certain licenses needed to maintain his company in good standing.
Devin Coleman, also convicted of a felony in Florida tried to get a job at Popeyes, Burger King, and several other minimum wage employers and they all said no. Devin, unable to get minimum wage anywhere, decided to go back to school. He couldn't get a pell grant though.
Jessica Chiaponne also went the school route. After graduating from law school, she couldn't sit for the bar because of her prior conviction. Being able to profit from her education would go a long way in helping her provide for her family. For now, she uses her talents to help restore rights for herself and others.
Jessica and Devin both see public perception and stigma associated with being labeled a "felon" as one of many major hurdles they face. At one point Devin's uncle called him a derelict. Devin sees three major challenges for Floridians that have been convicted of a felony, that affect every single aspect of their lives. There are systemic challenges in obtaining housing, employment, education, and access to all sorts of facets of life in America. Combine those with the second challenge — negative public perception — and you get very quickly to the third challenge: self perception. Every image of a "felon" that Devin's uncle had seen had been negative news stories accompanied by a news anchor rattling off previous convictions, or descriptions of the suspects clothing. No one envisions a college student who made one mistake.
Devin's challenge was to see himself again as a person, a citizen, a father, a college student and graduate, and an advocate for himself and others.
Devin, Michael and Jessica told their stories at the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Statewide Convening in Orlando last month. They, along with Desmond Meade and Neil Volz, are leaders in the effort to restore the ability to vote to nearly 1.5 million Floridians.
They all see the ability to vote as the first step. Without the ability to vote for elected officials who will represent them, it's unlikely the barriers to reentering society will ever change. To put it bluntly the systemic challenges will never change if individuals like themselves who are directly impacted by those challenges can't vote.
They are relying on their fellow Floridians without felony convictions to sign a ballot initiative petition in support of having the issue on the ballot in 2018. After that hurdle is passed they will need 60% of the Florida vote to vote in favor of the Florida constitutional amendment. They are working around the clock for the Say Yes to Second Chances campaign because they have no other option but to win and because of Desmond Meade.
Desmond Meade's story will make you believe in Second Chances. The first second chance occurred for Desmond when a scheduled train he planned to jump in front of never arrived. So, he crossed the tracks and checked himself into rehab. Afterwards, he graduated from law school. Along the way Desmond married Sheena Meade, who later decided to run for office. Desmond couldn't vote for the mother of their 5 children. So Desmond got involved in the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) where he put his education in law to good use since he, like Jessica Chiaponne, can not sit for the bar.
There were large organizations backing FRRC's efforts when he first got involved. But, the campaign fell apart when the gains they had made for returning citizens ability to vote were rolled back by elected officials. Large organizations got in their wagons and moved on. Desmond couldn't. He along with the other returning citizens involved at the time were still disenfranchised as ever. This campaign is now led by these resilient Floridians. This is their Second Chance and that is why they are going to win.
They formed a ballot initiative committee — Floridians for a Fair Democracy — so they could submit ballot language. Then, returning citizen volunteers gathered 70,000 signatures in support of the constitutional amendment that triggered the legal review process for language approval by the state. The language was approved unanimously by the Florida Supreme Court.
Now, they need 766,200 petition forms filled out and approved by the review board for validity by Feb 1st, 2018. The campaign goal is to have 1,000,000 petition signatures by December 31, 2017. Due SOLELY to the tireless work of the returning citizen volunteers and leaders in this grassroots effort, they are getting the support they need to pull this off. Now, funders have noticed grassroots volunteers are farther along than Florida's most successful ballot initiatives to date without any outside support.
Just ask Aliki Moncrief, the campaign manager for Amendment 1 - the Water and Land Conservation Amendment campaign of 2012. Moncrief, ballot initiative guru Robert Brooks, and David Johnson, former executive director of the Florida State Republican party were part of the second panel at the FRRC Statewide Convening. According to these experts, the timeline works, the message is tested and solid, and momentum is through the roof.
This week the ACLU committed to throw down in a major way to the grassroots movement. These resources will go into professional canvassers and volunteer effort support. More large donors from both sides of the aisle will likely commit in the coming months.
But the leaders in Florida, like Desmond, remember how far large organizational power gets you: nowhere near as far as you get yourself. That is why they are focused on raising money for their grassroots movement, led by returning citizens, which will work around the clock until November 6th, 2018 to see this victory through. Then they plan to run the organization well beyond this campaign because they know first hand that the ability to vote is the first step in a long mission to address the systemic challenges that people face during reentry after incarceration.
There are countless ways to get involved whether you live in Florida or Alaska. What happens in Florida will affect us all and could set a model precedent for other states to follow, no matter where we live, or how long or short our rap sheet is.
Click here to get updates from Daily Kos on how to support this effort from now until election day 2018.
If you are a Florida resident and still need to fill out the petition form to mail in click here. Once you print the form, fill out the form and SIGN THE FORM WITH THE SAME EXACT NAME AS YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION SIGNATURE you must mail it to:
Floridians for a Fair Democracy, Inc.
3000 Gulf-to-Bay Blvd., Suite 503
Clearwater, FL, 33759
