FL- Voting Rights Elude Some Florida Ex-Felons, Study Says

It appears that, as to sex offenders completeling their sentences before this new -restoration of rights procedure-, this violates the ex post facto clauses for them esp since it is based on their conviction, as is everyone else. Excepting murder, as to others they can apply and have rights restored. Has a hint of discrimination as well.

3-11-2009 Florida:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.— Florida’s procedures for restoring voting rights to convicted felons are so cumbersome, bureaucratic and confusing that some ex-convicts are being denied their rights, according to a report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

Most election officials throughout the state are unsure about who can win back their voting rights, the report found.

Florida is among a handful of states that do not permit automatic restoration of rights once someone has been released from prison. In 2007, Gov. Charlie Crist pushed through new procedures to speed up the process for most felons seeking voting rights. The new process does not apply to murderers and sex offenders.

More than 138,000 people had their rights restored between April 2007 and March 2009, but the A.C.L.U. said it was concerned that thousands of additional voters might not know what to do because of widespread confusion over the new eligibility rules.

The group got conflicting answers when it surveyed the offices of all 67 election supervisors in the state. Employees in six county elections offices, for example, told callers, wrongly, that someone convicted of a misdemeanor was ineligible to vote. The survey also showed that nearly half incorrectly asserted that felons needed to produce paperwork showing they had their rights restored in order to register.

“It’s very hard for anyone to know what’s going on,” said Muslima Lewis, a senior lawyer for the A.C.L.U. of Florida, who wrote the report. “The rules are convoluted and hard to understand.”

Taiwan Daniels, 28, who lives in Broward County, lost his rights after he was convicted on a cocaine charge when he was 16. He spent a year trying to get his rights restored before he succeeded in October, and called the process more “discouraging than encouraging.”

The A.C.L.U. is calling on Florida to automatically restore voting rights to hundreds of thousands of former prisoners in the state. The report also recommends waiving a requirement that a convicted felon first pay off court-ordered restitution.

Mr. Crist said Wednesday that “more can be done” to improve the process. But he said Florida was “on the right path.”

“I think we have done more in the past two years to restore the rights of former felons than we have done in the rest of the history of Florida,” Mr. Crist said.

Florida’s effort to keep felons from voting has been a flashpoint in recent years. Thousands were purged from the state’s voting rolls before the 2000 presidential election, even though there were questions about the accuracy of the list of ineligible voters.

The state scrapped plans for another purge in 2004 after newspapers pointed out flaws with the list, including that the list had virtually no Hispanics on it. ..News Source.. by GARY FINEOUT