Home » About » Newsletters » June 2001
"Florida Equal Voting Rights Project
Active on Various Fronts Statewide"
By Courtenay Strickland
Florida Equal Voting Rights Project Coordinator
Step by step, Florida is assuming a position as a nationwide leader in election reform. Thanks to the generous support of the California-based Steven and Michele Kirsch Foundation, the ACLU of Florida continues to play a catalytic role through its Florida Equal Voting Rights Project. The Project, created to address the need for reforms in Florida's electoral process that came to light during the November election, has been active on all fronts, from litigation and legislative lobbying to public outreach.
On March 14, the Project addressed what is perhaps the most urgent civil rights problem facing our state - the mass disenfranchisement of ex-felons. Florida is one of only a handful of states to permanently disenfranchise felons until they apply for and are granted restoration of their civil rights by the Clemency Board - a process that has become so onerous as to be meaningless for most. This unjust situation has been exacerbated by the fact that the Department of Corrections (DOC) has routinely failed to fulfill its legal obligation to assist those who are leaving DOC supervision in navigating the clemency process. To address this problem, the Project filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all black state legislators, several individuals, and community organizations that were formed to assist ex-offenders in finding housing and employment. The lawsuit, Florida Conference of Black State Legislators, et al. v. Michael Moore, asks the court to order the DOC to comply with provisions of Florida law that require the Department of Corrections to assist ex-felons with the clemency application process prior to their release from supervision.
Momentum around the issue of felony disenfranchisement has only increased since the Legislature refused to address the problem. Thanks to the hard work of ACLU chapters and community organizations such as Brothers of the Same Mind and Floridians Representing Equity and Equality (FREE), a number of town hall meetings have been held around the state to raise awareness and assist ex-offenders in completing the necessary application forms for the restoration of their civil rights.
Project staff put together a clemency application packet to assist former offenders in applying for the restoration of their right to vote. The most recent town hall meeting, hosted on May 19 by the Tampa chapter of the ACLU, brought together community members, lawmakers, and civil rights attorneys to help ex-felons with the application process and to discuss possible action to address this injustice. More such meetings are planned for the future.
The Project also conducted a town hall meeting in Orlando as part of an inquiry into numerous issues specific to central Florida where Latino and Hispanic voters charged that they were prevented from voting in November because of the failure by some central Florida counties to provide language assistance to Spanish-speaking voters.
In a positive move, the Florida Legislature addressed the issue of voting technology by outlawing the infamous punch-card machine. However, the positive impact of the legislation was diminished by the inclusion of a "Voter Responsibilities" list mandated for posting in every polling place. Before the bills went to conference, the Project issued a letter to House and Senate leadership, along with an accompanying press release, asking conferees to consider the "chilling effect" of the responsibility list. The list includes entries that misstate Florida law, such as the "responsibility" to "bring proper identification to the polling station." More disturbingly, the list admonishes the voter to "study and know candidates and issues," a requirement reminiscent of the literacy tests used to disenfranchise African Americans during the Jim Crow era.
The Project continues to advocate for full access to the ballot - a goal that cannot be fully achieved simply by changing technology.
