Florida made history when it passed Amendment 4 restoring voting rights to the state’s nearly one million former felons.
However, on Wednesday (April 24) the GOP-House passed a bill that would require former felons to pay court fees, fine,s and restitution prior to voting. The Senate bill requires that just restitution be paid. If this measure is passed it could prohibit thousands of ex-cons from being able to vote.
The state reportedly also doesn’t have a method to properly tally restitution and to create a system could cost millions. On Wednesday, the House considered a proposal by the Senate that would allot $2 million to hire more workers at the Florida Commission on Offender Review to review the applications of former felons.
That commission would then report their findings to local supervisors of elections.
“Obviously, the individual is responsible for determining whether they’ve completed all the terms of their own sentence,” Sen. Jeff Brandes “If they have questions, they should go to local supervisors of elections.”
