In A Historic Move, Florida Restores Voting Rights To Felons

On Tuesday, Florida voters approved a constitutional voting rights amendment which would allow persons with a felony conviction to vote, once their sentence is completed.

Florida voting rights persons with conviction

This historic move expands the voting rights to about 1.4 million people and reverses a state policy rooted in the Jim Crow South.

Florida is one of four states that permanently prevents people with felonies from voting, even if they’ve completed their sentence, probation and parole.

Disenfranchised by the policy

The 1.4 million people in the state who have been severely disenfranchised by the policy represent an estimated 10 percent of Florida’s voting population and a quarter of the total disenfranchised population in the United States, reports the Huff Post.

According to an estimate from The Sentencing Project, more than 1 in 5 African Americans in the state are disenfranchised because of the policy.

The only way people can get the right to vote back is if the governor decides to grant it to them through a process that takes years.

People convicted of murder and sexual offenses are bared from the amendment and won’t have their rights automatically restored.