FELONS' RIGHTS

Court Abdicates Duty To Fairness

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to fix Florida's lifetime
voting ban for anyone convicted of a felony. That puts the issue
right back in the lap of the Legislature, which should do away with
this cruel, antiquated law.

Florida is one of a handful of states with such a harsh law. Felons
also can't serve on juries or hold a state-issued occupational
license. The state has a clemency process to restore civil rights
(including voting) but it's a time-consuming, often expensive effort
and the result isn't guaranteed. Until recently, petitioners could
wait years for a hearing. Gov. Jeb Bush added staff earlier this year
to speed up voting-rights petitions, and the state will spend
millions this year working on the thousands of cases awaiting a hearing.

The high court didn't listen to the groups backing restoration of
voting rights for those who have paid their debt to society --
including law enforcement and corrections associations, the Florida
League of Women Voters and a group of federal prosecutors. And
lawmakers didn't listen to Sens. Stephen Wise, R-Gainesville, and
Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, who proposed earlier this year that the
state should automatically restore voting rights to felons who leave
prison and keep their noses clean.

It's time to listen. More than 600,000 Florida residents are barred
from voting due to felony convictions, a number that includes more
than 10 percent of African-merican adults -- largely because of
discriminatory drug laws.

Because the ban is for a lifetime, many of those on the state's
official felon list are still paying for a mistake made decades ago.
Since their conviction, many have become productive employees (in
spite of the high barriers for ex-felons in the workplace) and had
children. They pay local property taxes, yet they aren't able to vote
for school board members or city officials. They live in Florida, but
they can't back a gubernatorial or presidential candidate. For many,
every campaign sign must be a reminder that they are still forbidden
to participate in fundamental democracy.

Florida's restrictive laws created havoc during the state's last two
presidential elections, when overzealous officials sought to purge
voter rolls of those deemed ineligible to vote because of a felony
conviction. In 2000, the names of many African-Americans were
included on purge lists, though they had never committed a felony --
and some were turned away at the polls because of that mistake. In
2004, Secretary of State Glenda Hood hired a company with a
troublesome track record to compile the felons list, only to abandon
it after thousands of people who had no felony conviction, or whose
civil rights had been restored, were named on the list.

But even when the label is correct, it doesn't adequately describe a
potential voter or recognize the possibility for rehabilitation.
Other states already acknowledge this, and many are taking steps to
correct their voting laws. It's time for Florida to abandon its
archaic, condemnatory views and extend full rights to those who have
paid their debt to society.