During the 2018 midterm elections, 64.5 percent of Floridians voted in favor of passing the Voting Restoration Amendment, also known as Amendment 4, which restored voting rights to over a million formerly incarcerated people. In spite of that overwhelming victory, tens of thousands of formerly incarcerated people remain disenfranchised, The Guardian reports.
As Colorlines reported in March 2019, Florida’s House and Senate, which are both controlled by Republicans, introduced “a bill that would require formerly incarcerated Florida residents to pay fines before they can have their voting rights restored.” Detractors said the bill would “unfairly punish those who are unable to pay and undermine the central objective of the amendment: ending permanent disenfranchisement,” according to The New York Times.
Read more at Colorlines.