Andrew Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor who last November lost a close race to become Florida’s governor, sharply criticized new restrictions placed on voting by people with felony convictions at a congressional hearing on Monday. “The unfortunate thing” about Florida, Gillum said, was that “we almost
Andrew Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor who last November lost a close race to become Florida’s governor, sharply criticized new restrictions placed on voting by people with felony convictions at a congressional hearing on Monday. He said the new restrictions, passed last Friday by the Florida state legislature, amounted to a “poll tax,” one of the measures historically used in Southern states to prevent African-Americans from voting.
Gillum was one of several witnesses at the hearing, which was held in Fort Lauderdale. They described a variety of efforts by the state’s Republicans to disenfranchise people of color, whose share of Florida’s population has substantially increased. Gillum made his “poll tax” comments in response to a measure passed by the Republican-controlled Florida state legislature last week, weakening Amendment 4, a ballot initiative to allow former prisoners who have completed their sentences to vote in the state. The amendment, which would affect some 1.5 million ex-felons, passed with 65 percent of the vote in November.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., the former head of the Democratic National Committee, said she believed the legislature’s actions to have been “illegal.” She then asked Gillum if he thought the measure amounted to a “poll tax,” and whether its intention was “sowing fear and confusion among voters.”
Gillum and Stacey Abrams, who lost her race for governor of Georgia last year, have portrayed what they call Republican voter suppression efforts in starkly racial terms that harken back to the civil rights era. She called the man who defeated her, Republican Brian Kemp, who at the time was Georgia’s secretary of state, “an architect of voter suppression that spent the last eight years knitting together a system of voter suppression that is unparalleled in America.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Kamala Harris said that without voter suppression, Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum would've won their 2018 races“We need a new voting rights act,” said Harris said during her keynote speech at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner.
Read more »
Florida legislators agree to limit felons’ voting rights. Critics call it a new poll tax.The measure would require felons to pay court-ordered financial obligations before they can cast a ballot. Critics said they would label Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) the “Jim Crow” governor if he signs the bill.
Read more »
Florida House passes bill that makes it harder for ex-felons to voteThe Florida House Friday passed a bill that would require ex-felons in the state, who were granted the right to vote in a referendum last fall, pay all financial obligations before they can head to the polls, a measure that opponents have likened to a 'poll tax.'
Read more »
Florida on verge of blocking some ex-felons from voting. Critics call it a poll tax.Florida lawmakers sent a bill to the governor that would require ex-felons to pay court-ordered restitution, fees, and fines before their voting rights can be restored — which critics have blasted as a 'poll tax' that subverts the will of the people.
Read more »
Florida Bill Requires Felons Pay Fines Before Voting Rights RestoredSupporters of a divisive Florida bill say it will clarify an amendment that restored voting rights to people with felony convictions, while critics say the measure will exclude tens of thousands who should qualify to regain the vote
Read more »
Florida man who threatened to behead Bernie Sanders 'ISIS style' convictedRobert Francis Pratersch faces 15 years in jail after threatening to kill the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.
Read more »
Minnesota police officer convicted of murder in fatal shooting of Australian woman who called 911A jury found the officer, Mohamed Noor, guilty of third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Justine Damond, a 40-year-old Australian woman.
Read more »
Trump Pardons Ex-Army Officer Convicted of Killing IraqiPresident Trump pardoned former U.S. Army First Lt. Michael Behenna, a decision the White House said was based on the support of senior military leaders for a soldier who claimed he killed a suspected Iraqi terrorist in self-defense.
Read more »