Florida election leaders consider changes to felon voting process

State election officials on Friday listened to suggestions on how to update the process for convicted felons to request so-called advisory opinions on their eligibility to vote, with advocates calling for a procedure that provides “certainty” to people who have served their sentences.

A rulemaking workshop was held after mediation between election officials and plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging how the state implemented a 2018 constitutional amendment aimed at restoring the right to criminals vote.

The lawsuit, filed in July by the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and individual plaintiffs, described a “bureaucratic quagmire” encountered by felons trying to find out if they were eligible to vote.

Neil Volz, deputy director of the Rights Restoration Group, outlined his organization’s overall goals for the advisory opinion process during Friday’s hour-long meeting.

“The basics that we hope to see… are relatively simple. That anyone can get a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ from the government, that they can count on that, that we can take that uncertainty out of the process,” said Volz, a convicted felon who has had his rights civilians restored by Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet.

Ashley Davis, deputy general counsel for the Florida Department of State, asked Volz for additional comment on what the rule should say.

“Please tell us all the things, the limitations, the requirements, the deadlines, everything that you want to be able to see in this rule and in this process. That’s exactly what we’re trying to inspire,” Davis said.

Volz said the state’s form should be “clear, concise,” offer as many “yes” or “no” questions as possible and allow someone to give “the state all the tools it has need to go through all the different databases.” .”

Volz’s group and others will provide additional comments in writing to state election officials in the coming days.

Leon County Elections Supervisor Mark Earley told Davis and Florida Division of Elections Director Maria Matthews that the state should create a process that includes a deadline to determine whether potential voters are eligible and provide a “feedback mechanism” and tracking system so people know their requests. advisory opinions were received.

Earley pointed to “a backlog of people” who are unsure of their voting status.

“We’re hearing this from our voters and potential voters who, frankly, as they’ve told me, are wondering if they should try to register because they just don’t know what their status is. It’s very difficult to determine that,” Earley said.

Earley, who said his office has hired additional staff who focus solely on “that crime review process,” also suggested the state consider something akin to a “statute of limitations” for sentences imposed many years ago, which could allow more potential voters to vote. Be eligible.

“Some of this data might be very, very difficult to discover,” Earley said. “And I would hate for that to be an obstacle that leads to a dead end, because the problem of determining eligibility is not really on the part of the applicants but on the government resources available to approve or disprove eligibility.”

The confusion over voter eligibility stems from a controversial 2019 law that DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature approved to implement the constitutional amendment, which stipulated that the right to vote would be restored “upon of all terms of their sentence, including parole or probation.”

The 2019 law required felons to pay “legal financial obligations” — fees, fines and other court costs — associated with their conviction before they could vote. But tracking down sentencing-related records has proven problematic, time-consuming and, in some cases, impossible, according to elections supervisors and attorneys familiar with the process.

Additionally, lawmakers, at DeSantis’ request, in 2022 created the Office of Crime and Election Security. Since then, more than two dozen people have been arrested for voting illegally. Many of those arrested said they were convicted felons who believed they had the right to vote and who had received voter cards from election authorities.

Amy Keith, executive director of Common Cause Florida, said people with prior felony convictions need to be able to rely on election officials’ decisions.

“When a person receives a decision indicating that they are eligible, they should be able to register and vote on the basis of that decision, without risk of civil or criminal sanction, even if there was an error in the decision ” Keith, who joined the meeting by phone, said.

Keith said eligibility determinations should be made within 30 days “so that individuals are not left in limbo.”

Additionally, people should not have to “acquire or submit records” to find out if they are eligible to vote, Keith said.

Cecile Scoon, co-director of the League of Women Voters of Florida, said the state should adopt recommendations made by a task force assembled after the amendment passed, such as creating a database including records from agencies such as county court clerks, the Department of Corrections, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

His group recommends that advisory opinions be provided within 90 days of the request. Additionally, Scoon said indigent people should be able to waive the costs of background searches conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and that the state should be responsible for obtaining the records necessary to determine their eligibility.

“So making it open to everyone, regardless of income, because our ability to get justice and get answers from our government should not be tied to our wallet,” said Scoon, an attorney.

Friday’s meeting was a first step toward creating a rule that could resolve the legal battle. The plaintiffs “have decided to voluntarily dismiss their case without prejudice and may refile their case if rulemaking, or subsequent implementation of any adopted rule, fails to allay their concerns,” a mediator wrote in a report filed May 13 as part of the lawsuit.