In 2018, Florida voters passed a ballot measure restoring the vote to more than 1 million people with felony convictions in their past. In 2019, Florida Republican lawmakers undermined the will of the voters by passing a law requiring people to pay all fines and fees related to their convictions, no matter how long in the past—basically, a poll tax. It’s also turning out to be more than a financial barrier, because the state isn’t telling people how much they owe. With the law allowing prosecution of people who don’t pay the full amount they don’t know they owe, this is a major, major problem. (And also just what Republicans wanted.)
Clifford Tyson was convicted of three felonies in the 1970s and 1990s. He’s now a 63-year-old pastor who wants to vote, but, despite getting legal help to find out how much he owes, he still doesn’t know. “The records, viewed by Reuters, show potential sums ranging from $846 to a couple thousand dollars,” with records for the same conviction showing wildly different fines and fees assessed. Tyson doesn’t want to go back to jail, so “Until there is clarity, as much as I want to vote, I won’t do it.”
It’s not just him. Reuters reports that neither the former felons trying to claim their right to vote nor state election officials can find out how much people need to pay before legally registering to vote, an issue affecting an estimated 436,000 people. In a state as closely divided as Florida, that could be the difference in 2020—and it cannot be stressed enough just how much Republicans know that and are trying to keep those people from voting. This total lack of critical information is the subject of a lawsuit by the ACLU, Brennan Center for Justice, and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Tyson is one of the plaintiffs.
Five of the state’s 67 county elections supervisors “testified recently in the lawsuit that they lack the manpower to do detailed searches or have no way of ascertaining for certain whether ex-offenders have met their financial obligations under SB 7066.” The state keeps claiming it will provide the information, but the 2020 primaries are approaching fast, with a Feb. 18 registration deadline, and “Right now, the system is just a mess,” an ACLU attorney told Reuters.
Republicans don’t want people to vote unless they’re rich and white, and they just keep putting up barriers to everyone else wherever they can find a way.