AG Nessel Joins Coalition Opposing Florida's Unlawful Pay-to-Vote System for Formerly Incarcerated Citizens

In 2018, Florida voters approved Amendment 4, a constitutional amendment that automatically restored the voting rights of some felons “upon completion of all terms” of their sentences, “including parole or probation.” In response, in 2019, the Florida Legislature enacted SB-7066, which defined “completion of all terms of sentence” to include not just any term of imprisonment or supervision, but also financial obligations included in the sentence. Following a legal challenge to SB-7066, the district court blocked enforcement of the law, and the case is now on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. If the court upholds SB-7066, nearly one million Florida residents would be unable to vote because they have unpaid legal financial obligations. 

In this amicus brief, the states collectively support the plaintiffs’ challenge to the Florida felon disenfranchisement law because: 

• Pay-to-vote laws harm low-income returning citizens and do not compel payment: States that condition restoration of voting rights to people convicted of felonies on payment of all legal financial obligations disadvantages low-income residents by indefinitely depriving them of the right to vote. There is little evidence that disenfranchisement compels people to pay outstanding legal financial obligations if they do not have the money to do so. This is especially true in Florida, which has not established an administrative process for returning citizens to ascertain what, if anything, they owe.      
   
• Felon disenfranchisement disproportionately harms Black and Latinx communities: States have recognized the importance of restoring voting rights to returning citizens given the disparate impact felon disenfranchisement laws have on minority communities. As of 2016, over 7.4 percent of the Black voting age population in the United States could not vote, as compared to only 1.8 percent of the non-Black voting age population. In Florida, more than 20 percent of Black adults have been disenfranchised. Available data also suggests that disenfranchisement laws disproportionately harm the Latinx community because they are incarcerated at higher rates than the non-Latinx population: about 2.4 times greater for Latinx men and 1.5 times for Latinx women.    
   
• Expanding voting to returning citizens promotes successful reintegration and enhances public safety: Over the past 20 years, states have restored the right to vote to more than one million citizens by reforming their felon disenfranchisement laws. These reform efforts include laws repealing lifetime disenfranchisement, allowing people convicted of felonies to vote while completing the terms of their probation or parole, eliminating requirements to pay legal financial obligations, and providing information to felons leaving correctional facilities about restoration of their voting rights and registering to vote. These state efforts are supported by studies finding that restoring voting rights to former felons fosters civic participation and reduces their likelihood of committing further crimes.