A year after ex-felons in Florida got their voting rights back, obstacles remain.
An estimated 80 percent of Florida felons are assigned fees, fines or restitution at sentencing, according to a recent court filing, and many will spend years or decades on payment plans to settle — meaning thousands of people were suddenly no longer eligible for rights restoration. Meade estimates that more than half a million people cannot register to vote because of these financial obligations.
Meanwhile, at the request of Republican Gov. Rick DeSantis, the Florida State Supreme Court is expected to wade into the fight, too, with an opinion on whether the constitutional amendment includes financial obligations, as lawmakers insist. Hinkle wrote in his ruling that he anticipates the court will interpret the amendment in line with Florida's legislators.
And there are still outstanding practical issues with the law. Because Florida has no centralized system to track the fees and fines, it's sometimes difficult for former felons to figure out how much they owe the state. “We’re hoping that the state will resolve these dire constitutional concerns because to fail to do so would both go against the will of Floridians when they passed Amendment 4, and we would all find ourselves back in court to resolve those issues,” Ebenstein said."In spite of the litigation and legislation, we know what we’re talking about is real people," he told NBC News this week.
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