> Published Friday, January 21, 2000, in the Miami Herald
>
> Florida, other states may let ex-felons vote
>
> BY FRANK DAVIES
> fdavies at herald.com
>
> WASHINGTON -- One year after a report found that
> 3.9 million Americans could not vote because of
> felony records, Florida and 12 other states are
> debating whether ex-offenders should have the right
> to vote, according to a follow-up study released this week.
>
> Florida is one of 14 states that bars ex-felons from voting,
> even years after a sentence or probation has been completed.
> An ex-offender can get voting rights restored by applying through the
> governors Office of Executive Clemency, a cumbersome process
> that about 1,200 people used in 1998.
>
> A study by the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice
> research group that opposes most mandatory
> sentences, found at the end of 1998 that Florida
> led the nation with 647,000 adults who were
> disenfranchised because of their record. That
> included one of every three black men in the state.
>
> State officials have not disputed those findings, but
> pointed out there are probably thousands of
> ex-felons who do vote in Florida, including many
> who have moved from states where they voted
> legally.
>
> According to the Project, there are now legislative
> and legal efforts in 13 states and Congress to
> change the system. In Florida, state Sen. James
> Hargett, D-Tampa, and Rep. Willie Logan,
> D-Opa-locka, pushed a bill to automatically
> restore voting rights one year after the completion of a
> felony sentence.
>
> That proposal did not get out of committee, but
> Hargett said he will try again in the upcoming
> legislative session.
>
> In other states, legislative efforts run the gamut
> from restoring rights to further restricting rights:
>
> Delaware: The House passed a bill allowing
> some ex-felons, depending on their offense, to regain
> the right to vote if their records are clean for five years.
> The Senate is considering the measure.
>
> Nevada: One house approved the restoration of the
> vote to all ex-felons who completed parole or
> probation and paid all court-ordered restitution.
>
> Massachusetts: This is one of four states that allow
> prison inmates to vote, but Gov. Paul Cellucci
> has led an effort to enact a constitutional amendment
> to take that right away. The legislature is
> expected to take up the issue this year.
>
> Marc Mauer, assistant director of the Sentencing Project,
> said the nation's burgeoning prison population was
> creating ``an ever-larger pool of ineligible voters'' after they
> leave prison. The 1998 study found that 73 percent of the
> disenfranchised voters were not in prison, with half of those on
> probation or parole.
>
> The issue of ex-felons voting was raised in a
> presidential candidates debate Monday. Democrats Al
> Gore and Bill Bradley said they would review the
> practice, and Bradley said that someone who
> committed a nonviolent offense and was ``able
> to go straight for two or three years'' should have
> voting rights restored.