Last November, Florida voters passed an amendment restoring voting rights to felons in the state who have completed their sentences. Murderers and those who committed felony sex offenses are excluded. Those eligible must not only have completed their sentence, but any resulting parole or probation. As of today, Amendment 4 is now in effect.
And it is a big deal. Florida leaders, and most significantly ex-Gov. Rick Scott, have used the disenfranchisement to their advantage for years. As an intentional result of nearly nonexistent clemency efforts under Scott, by last year more than 10 percent of Florida adults had been rendered ineligible to vote. Because of the systemic racism that pervades this nation's criminal processes (see: drug convictions), the other (intentional) result of this mismanagement has been to disproportionately block non-white Americans from voting. And that, in the end, is why Florida voters became fed up enough to restore voting rights to 1.4 million people—whether Rick Scott and Florida conservatives wanted it or not, and by a nearly 2 to 1 vote, at that.
Those that have had their voting rights restored may register at any county elections office or online, here.
This is not quite the end of the matter, however. NPR reports that elections supervisors in the state want further clarifications as to which felons are still barred from re-registering, including whether felons must be free even of outstanding court costs and other restitution before having their rights restored. And there's worry among some that Florida officials will abuse that uncertainty by criminalizing voter registrations that turn out, after those clarifications have been made, to have been invalid.
Indeed, Florida officials aren't making the process easy. The Tampa Bay Times reported last month that the state had stopped transmitting the documents state counties once used to remove convicted felons from their rolls, but also that the state had been refusing to give needed guidance to county supervisors on what to do next.
Now that implementation day has arrived, some of those details still remain unimplemented. The Sun-Sentinel reports there is no process in place for verifying whether applications are valid. The absence of that process, however, doesn't mean the law gets put on hold, and county elections supervisors are moving forward. If you are a Florida ex-felon who has completed all terms of your sentencing, including any subsequent parole or probation, your rights are now restored.