Florida lawmakers passed a controversial bill in the House which will require ex-felons to repay fines before having their voting rights restored.
The Associated Press reports the Republican-led House voted 71-45 Wednesday for the legislation that piggybacks off of a constitutional amendment voted on in November which restores voting rights of former felons with the exception of murderers and felony sex offenders be restored.
Amendment 4 will restore felons voting rights "upon completion of all terms of sentence including parole or probation." However, the new bill will require former offenders to pay fines and restitution to the state first.
“Today’s partisan vote in the House represented a failure to live up to the bipartisan commitment Florida voters showed with the passage of Amendment 4,” Neil Volz, the political director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, the group that spearheaded passage of the constitutional amendment, said in a statement to HuffPost.
A similar bill is currently being decided upon in the Florida Senate. Critics of both bills believe the repayment of fines will only continue to disenfranchise the newly released.
As HuffPost notes, the repayment of fines and restitution by order of a judge is part of a sentence. The issue for supporters of the amendment is that it does not allow the state to require fines and fees before ex-offenders can vote.
The bill was sponsored by Tampa Republican Rep. James Grant who claims the proposal will not take away the rights of 1.4 million former offenders. He insisted the bill upholds the state's constitution. The Tallahassee Democrat reports Grant believes the former offenders disenfranchised themselves when they committed a crime.
“It absolutely includes fines, fees and court costs,” Grant told media. "This bill does not disenfranchise anyone."
Rep. Ramon Alexander, D-Tallahassee, disagrees.
"If we're going to silence them from voting then why do we expect them to pay ad valorem taxes," said Alexander. "If we think they are not fit to participate in society then why do we let them out of prison."
Social justice groups such as the NAACP, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center want the state's legislature to drop the financial requirements altogether, citing ex-offenders’ ability to pay them. The new measure may become law, but it is dependent on what happens in the Senate.
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