Florida in 2020 if Felon Restoration Passes in 2018

[ajc0918]

It is a long shot but Florida could have the opportunity to pass a felon restoration amendment in 2018 if they get enough signatures approved by Feb 2018. This amendment would restore voting rights to 1.6 million Floridians. While turnout among this group would probably be very low in 2020(if the amendment passes), it has the opportunity to change the political landscape. In addition, one in five African Americans in Florida are effected by this.

How would this influx of new voters change Florida in 2020?

Info: https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_Voting_Rights_Restoration_for_Felons_Initiative_(2018)


*** mod note (5/14/2017): fixed your link - the ')' at the end was cut off due to forum quirks

[Sumner 1868]

Endless amounts of "Democrats need criminals to win elections!" from talk radio and the Breitbart crowd.

[Virginiá]

As I understand it, 1.6 million would be the total number of felons, no? If so, the actual number of reenfranchised voters would be less, as this amendment restores to all but murderers and sexual offenders, and restoration is only performed once the citizen completes parole and probation, and I presume pays any outstanding court fees/fines.

That being said, the turnout rates would be low - iirc, around 20% give or take for felons, and while the bump in African American and Hispanic voter participation would help Democrats, I'm not sure that the end result would be a big boost. There would be a lot of additional white voters as well. Off the top of my head, my guess is, perhaps less than an additional 0.5% for the Democrat in a good year.

However, no matter how small it is, it is the right thing to do. Also, from a partisan perspective, reforming things like this are critical. Voter suppression these days are not based around one or two huge roadblocks like literacy tests and poll taxes, but rather by "death by a thousand cuts" - making tons of tiny changes to election law that eventually builds up to a more substantial pro-Republican advantage.

[Virginiá]

The GOP legislature will de-fang it like they did the Medical Marijuana Amendment

Going by the amendment text, it doesn't appear they can do that.

As for the MM amendment, it was poorly drafted in the sense that it assumed (or simply overlooked entirely) that the state would act in good faith and respect the spirit of the amendment. That was a huge mistake. Because it left most of the regulatory framework to the state to come up with and did not include restrictions on what the state could regulate, it effectively allowed them to gut it.

Hopefully this teaches people pushing contentious amendments like this a lesson: Never give the state leeway in defining critical parts of the amendment themselves. If you want all felons to get their rights back after parole, specifically state that. If you want all MM patients to be able to smoke, specifically state that in the amendment. And so on.

[SingingAnalyst]

Bye bye gender gap. Think about it!

[Medal506]

It is a long shot but Florida could have the opportunity to pass a felon restoration amendment in 2018 if they get enough signatures approved by Feb 2018. This amendment would restore voting rights to 1.6 million Floridians. While turnout among this group would probably be very low in 2020(if the amendment passes), it has the opportunity to change the political landscape. In addition, one in five African Americans in Florida are effected by this.

How would this influx of new voters change Florida in 2020?

Info: https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_Voting_Rights_Restoration_for_Felons_Initiative_(2018)


*** mod note (5/14/2017): fixed your link - the ')' at the end was cut off due to forum quirks

Have democrats and liberals sunk this low that they now need felons ie (murders, rapists, drug dealers, attempted murders, violent felones, and let's not forget illegal aliens) to help them win presidential elections? Do the American people really hate liberals that much?

[Virginiá]

Have democrats and liberals sunk this low that they now need felons ie (murders, rapists, drug dealers, attempted murders, violent felones, and let's not forget illegal aliens) to help them win presidential elections? Do the American people really hate liberals that much?

It's not about needing it to win. A lot of us, myself included, believe in maximum voter access regardless of who benefits. If you want my perspective, it doesn't make sense to take away people's right to vote for just any felony. I can understand it for treason, public corruption, voter fraud, and so on, but the way it is used in some states is ridiculous. Over 10% of Florida's adult population (and almost 1 out of every 4 African Americans) cannot vote because of this. Now, to me, that is kind of an indictment of the state's criminal justice system as well, but that is another debate altogether.

My opinion is that voting should be made easy. Only minimal restrictions should be enacted, and technology should be utilized so that voting is easy and efficient. Unfortunately, the system is almost the opposite of that in much of America, usually for partisan reasons.

[Del Tachi]

Will be cancelled out by Florida Whites trending GOP.

[Ronnie]

It is a long shot but Florida could have the opportunity to pass a felon restoration amendment in 2018 if they get enough signatures approved by Feb 2018. This amendment would restore voting rights to 1.6 million Floridians. While turnout among this group would probably be very low in 2020(if the amendment passes), it has the opportunity to change the political landscape. In addition, one in five African Americans in Florida are effected by this.

How would this influx of new voters change Florida in 2020?

Info: https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_Voting_Rights_Restoration_for_Felons_Initiative_(2018)


*** mod note (5/14/2017): fixed your link - the ')' at the end was cut off due to forum quirks

Have democrats and liberals sunk this low that they now need felons ie (murders, rapists, drug dealers, attempted murders, violent felones, and let's not forget illegal aliens) to help them win presidential elections? Do the American people really hate liberals that much?

Felons may have made terrible mistakes in their lives, but they are still citizens--and that's the key difference between them and the undocumented immigrants who you've conflated them with.  Many of them have families, and futures outside of a prison cell.  The burden is on conservatives to explain why these people should not be a part of our civic process, and be stripped of an important part of citizenship.