Pubdate: Wed, 16 Nov 2005
Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL)
Copyright: 2005 News-Journal Corporation
Contact:  http://www.news-journalonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/700
Note: gives priority to local writers

FELONS' RIGHTS

Court Abdicates Duty To Fairness

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to fix Florida's lifetime 
voting ban for anyone convicted of a felony. That puts the issue 
right back in the lap of the Legislature, which should do away with 
this cruel, antiquated law.

Florida is one of a handful of states with such a harsh law. Felons 
also can't serve on juries or hold a state-issued occupational 
license. The state has a clemency process to restore civil rights 
(including voting) but it's a time-consuming, often expensive effort 
and the result isn't guaranteed. Until recently, petitioners could 
wait years for a hearing. Gov. Jeb Bush added staff earlier this year 
to speed up voting-rights petitions, and the state will spend 
millions this year working on the thousands of cases awaiting a hearing.

The high court didn't listen to the groups backing restoration of 
voting rights for those who have paid their debt to society -- 
including law enforcement and corrections associations, the Florida 
League of Women Voters and a group of federal prosecutors. And 
lawmakers didn't listen to Sens. Stephen Wise, R-Gainesville, and 
Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, who proposed earlier this year that the 
state should automatically restore voting rights to felons who leave 
prison and keep their noses clean.

It's time to listen. More than 600,000 Florida residents are barred 
from voting due to felony convictions, a number that includes more 
than 10 percent of African-merican adults -- largely because of 
discriminatory drug laws.

Because the ban is for a lifetime, many of those on the state's 
official felon list are still paying for a mistake made decades ago. 
Since their conviction, many have become productive employees (in 
spite of the high barriers for ex-felons in the workplace) and had 
children. They pay local property taxes, yet they aren't able to vote 
for school board members or city officials. They live in Florida, but 
they can't back a gubernatorial or presidential candidate. For many, 
every campaign sign must be a reminder that they are still forbidden 
to participate in fundamental democracy.

Florida's restrictive laws created havoc during the state's last two 
presidential elections, when overzealous officials sought to purge 
voter rolls of those deemed ineligible to vote because of a felony 
conviction. In 2000, the names of many African-Americans were 
included on purge lists, though they had never committed a felony -- 
and some were turned away at the polls because of that mistake. In 
2004, Secretary of State Glenda Hood hired a company with a 
troublesome track record to compile the felons list, only to abandon 
it after thousands of people who had no felony conviction, or whose 
civil rights had been restored, were named on the list.

But even when the label is correct, it doesn't adequately describe a 
potential voter or recognize the possibility for rehabilitation. 
Other states already acknowledge this, and many are taking steps to 
correct their voting laws. It's time for Florida to abandon its 
archaic, condemnatory views and extend full rights to those who have 
paid their debt to society.
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