The latest debate about felon voting rights in Florida
- Is it a poll tax if felons have to pay court costs and fees to regain voting rights? - Miami Herald
Excerpt: Voting along party lines, Republicans advanced the bill, which would require felons pay back all court fees and costs before being eligible to vote, even if those costs are not handed down by a judge as part of the person’s sentence.
“It’s blatantly unconstitutional as a poll tax,” said Rep. Adam Hattersley, D-Riverview.
Advocates of Amendment 4 believe no bill is needed, and that lawmakers are just meddling. Already, felons are registering to vote — and voting in city elections — across the state.
Committee chair Jamie Grant, R-Tampa, said he took the ballot measure’s language explicitly at its word, and he pointed to testimony Amendment 4 lawyers gave to the Florida Supreme Court. He said he cited Amendment 4’s own advocates, who told justices that completing someone’s sentence could include fees and court costs. To liken those costs to a poll tax is offensive, Grant said, referring to the practice in the Jim Crow south of charging African-Americans a fee, often prohibitive, to cast ballots.
“To suggest that this is a poll tax inherently diminishes the atrocity of what a poll tax actually was,” Grant said. “All we’re doing is following statute. All we’re doing is following the testimony of what was presented before the Florida Supreme Court explicitly acknowledging that fines and court costs are part of a sentence.”
Bottom Line: There are two issues at play here. One is a constitutional argument and the other is about principal. They’re both super easy and it’s so unfortunate that once again we have politicians not interested in reading the Constitution they’re attempting to cite as their argument in opposition. Here’s what the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution states:
Section 1.The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Any questions? Are the legal expenses or fees a tax imposed for the right to vote? No. Are they any form of tax? No. If you don’t want this law passed make your case but don’t lie to us and attempt to take advantage of the ignorant in society educated by your abuse of our public education system which doesn’t adequately teach these things.
That leads me to principal. Integrity is so often in short supply these days. Mr. Officer of the court, John Morgan & friends were quick to make the case in 2016 that the passage of the medical marijuana amendment was just about helping people in need of relief. They spent tens of millions saying just that...until it passed. Now what’s it about? Here we have a different version of the exact same thing. Those who advocated for the restoration of felon voting rights made the case that all restitution, which includes financial obligations related to the crime(s) would be paid. Now the argument is that it’s a “poll tax” which takes us back to where I started. Is intellectual honesty really too much to ask for with public officials and political activists?