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"ACLU Chapters Organize Workshops Across State to Help Ex-Felons Apply to Restore Their Voting Rights"
By Courtenay Strickland
Florida Equal Voting Rights Project Coordinator
The arrival of election season heralded a busy quarter for the Florida Equal Voting Rights Project. Amid continuing work on lawsuits already filed, the Project developed new materials for voter education, addressed problematic areas in the implementation of new election legislation, and perhaps most importantly, participated with ACLU chapters throughout the state in assisting hundreds of ex-felons with the application process for the restoration of civil and voting rights.
Attacking felony disenfranchisement, one of the most crucial civil rights problems facing Florida, has become a true grassroots movement. Word of the success of earlier ACLU rights restoration workshops generated similar initiatives throughout the state. The ACLU Tampa Chapter's August 25th workshop held in conjunction with Representative Arthenia Joyner helped spread the excitement northward.
On October 6th, the Project and the Greater Jacksonville ACLU worked with the office of former state representative Tony Hill to assist around 100 ex-felons in filling out the complicated clemency forms. ACLU Legal Director Randall Marshall, Tony Hill, a representative from the Florida Parole Commission, and others made remarks prior to the lengthy session of one-on-one assistance. The ACLU of Jacksonville was there in force with a large team of enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers.
Soon thereafter, the Project worked with the Panhandle chapter to host two more workshops on October 22nd and 23rd in the Pensacola area. Both served as important tools for coalition-building, with seven organizations committing time and resources. The ACLU Panhandle Chapter helped bring together the League of Women Voters, Men with Vision, Movement for Change, the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Blacks in Government in order to pool time and talents to restore voting rights for ex-felons in their area.
This quarter's workshop series culminated with two large and dynamic meetings both on November 10th. One was held in St. Petersburg and was co-sponsored by the Pinellas Chapter of the ACLU and Florida Senator Les Miller in conjunction with Florida Representative Frank Peterman and the League of Women Voters. Pinellas Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark contributed to the meeting's opening remarks. Regular ongoing workshops by the League of Women Voters in that area will help the November 10th participants complete their applications.
Fort Lauderdale got its first taste of voter re-enfranchisement courtesy of the ACLU of Broward County and Florida Representative Chris Smith. Volunteers from the Broward chapter helped organize the event and assisted workshop participants. Representatives from Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant's office, the Florida Parole Commission, and the Community Re-entry Program were all on-hand to participate. Representative Smith's office hopes to join the ACLU in repeating the event in early 2002, though the date, time and place are still tentative.
More workshops are currently being planned, including two in Flagler and Volusia Counties with Florida Representative Joyce Cusack. Discussions are underway for workshops in Polk County, Jefferson County, Gadsden County, the Homestead/Florida City area, and others. Repeat workshops have been proposed for Miami, the Tampa area and Duval County. If a workshop has not yet been held in your area and you are interested in helping to facilitate one, please contact Courtenay Strickland at (305) 576-2337 ext. 18.
Project work in other areas continued amid the workshop flurry. As part of its ongoing effort to become the primary citizen watchdog for November 2002, the Project issued "Your Rights as a Florida Voter," a flier specifically tailored to prevent many of the problems of November 2000. A test run of the flier in the Miami and Homestead elections showed its potential value in reducing the number of overvotes and in helping people stand up for their rights at the polls. The Project now plans to convert the existing flier into a shortened palm/wallet card that will correlate to a longer brochure, the latter of which will be designed to provide various groups with the information they need in order to answer questions on election day.
The Project's work to halt and/or correct portions of the Florida Election Reform Act also progressed. As a part of its careful monitoring of the rule-making process being conducted as a result of the Act, the Project offered comments to the Division of Elections regarding the new rules for determining voter intent. The Project is also promoting and facilitating legislative attempts to correct problems contained in the Election Reform Act, most notably the disqualification process for provisional ballots, which would prevent the ballots from serving their intended purpose. The Project is also working to repeal the list of Voter Responsibilities, which is bound to have a chilling effect on voters at the polls.
