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They approved \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2018\/11\/13\/human-rights-win-out-us-election\u0022\u003EAmendment 4\u003C\/a\u003E in an overwhelming majority, restoring the voting rights of most people in the state with felony convictions. It was an important step toward realizing the American ideal of free and fair elections.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe victory proved to be short-lived. Soon after the vote, the Florida legislature passed a law that once again put people\u2019s ability to vote in jeopardy. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/our-work\/analysis-opinion\/florida-law-throws-voter-rights-restoration-chaos\u0022\u003ESB 7066\u003C\/a\u003E requires citizens with felony convictions \u2013 whose right to cast a ballot had just been restored \u2013 to pay various fines, fees, or restitution, known as legal financial obligations or \u201cLFOs,\u201d before they can vote.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ESeventeen plaintiffs, represented by voting rights groups including the ACLU, NAACP LDF, the Brennan Center, and the Campaign Legal Center, are challenging the law in the case \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.law360.com\/cases\/5d19e4eee4e10209022d8ff0\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EJones v. DeSantis\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E. Last week, I listened to part of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2020\/04\/27\/844297011\/voting-rights-for-hundreds-of-thousands-of-felons-at-stake-in-florida-trial\u0022\u003Etelephone trial\u003C\/a\u003E, which is now in its final week in the US district court for the Northern District of Florida. The outcome could decide whether hundreds of thousands of formerly incarcerated Floridians are \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2020\/04\/27\/us-florida-needs-protect-voting-rights-all\u0022\u003Ebarred from voting\u003C\/a\u003E this year due to payment requirements.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe testimony I heard included an exchange between plaintiff\u2019s counsel and Doug Bakke, chief operations officer for the clerk of court for Florida\u2019s Hillsborough County. It made clear that many voters in Florida are unable to pay the LFOs at issue.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EBakke explained that the vast majority of fines, fees, and restitution in Florida go unpaid. He told the court that the \u201cmore pure or true collection rate is anywhere between 3 and 8 percent of fines and fees assessed.\u201d In a separate line of questioning he agreed that the average LFOs assessed in a first or second degree felony case would be $5,214 \u2013 an amount beyond reach for the majority of Americans according to an October 2019 study by JP Morgan Chase, which \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/10\/25\/your-money\/emergency-savings.html\u0022\u003Ereported an inability to cope\u003C\/a\u003E with unexpected bills above $700 for a low-income family and $2000 for a middle-income family. The Chase study was published well before the financial impacts of Covid-19 began to take effect.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EBut human rights law is clear that individuals\u2019 voting rights cannot hinge on how much money is in their bank account.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EBoth Florida\u2019s original disenfranchisement of people with felony convictions who had completed their sentences, and SB 7066 requiring payment of LFOs, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2020\/04\/27\/us-florida-needs-protect-voting-rights-all\u0022\u003Eviolate international human rights law\u003C\/a\u003E. As early as 1998, in a joint \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/legacy\/reports98\/vote\/\u0022\u003Ereport\u003C\/a\u003E with the Sentencing Project, Human Rights Watch stated that felony disenfranchisement after sentence completion, especially for a broad category of offenses like all felonies, violates article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a human rights treaty to which the United States is a party.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERequiring that people pay fines, fees, and restitution violates that treaty\u2019s requirement that the right to vote not be subject to a \u201cdistinction of any kind, such as\u2026race\u2026property, birth or other status.\u201d Whether or not a person can afford these fees, the requirement to pay before voting is unreasonable as it amounts to a de facto restriction on the right to vote based on property requirements. It\u0027s also inconsistent with the state\u0027s obligation to take effective measures to ensure that all persons entitled to vote can do so.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EPutting aside these unreasonable restrictions on the right to vote, even if a Florida citizen was able to pay, it\u2019s often impossible to determine how much a particular voter owes. Testimony in this week\u2019s trial revealed that for many potential voters in Florida with felony criminal records, it will be impossible to determine whether they have any legal financial obligations to the state; and if they do, how much they owe. This may be particularly true for those with convictions from the 1980s or earlier.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIn an exchange between plaintiff\u2019s counsel and Bakke regarding \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/our-work\/analysis-opinion\/florida-pastors-fight-right-vote-under-amendment-4\u0022\u003EPastor Clifford Tyson\u003C\/a\u003E, a Florida citizen who had felony convictions dating as far back as 1978, Bakke said, regarding the accuracy of the LFO records, \u201cThe older the case, the less confidence I would have.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAs plaintiff\u2019s counsel walked Bakke through the various aspects Pastor Tyson\u2019s records, which included old and more recent convictions from the mid 1990s, she asked, \u201ccan you tell me today how much Pastor Tyson still owes?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe answer: \u201cI believe it is still the $2. I have no records to indicate whether or not the costs of supervision have been paid.\u201d Further exchanges regarding separate records held by the clerk\u2019s office introduced the possibility that Tyson owed $271; or possibly $259. The testimony left unclear whether or not additional restitution payments were required of Tyson. In an \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/our-work\/analysis-opinion\/florida-pastors-fight-right-vote-under-amendment-4\u0022\u003Einterview\u003C\/a\u003E with the Brennan Center for Justice, Pastor Tyson explained that he lives off of a disability payment of $7,600 per year. If he could ever determine the actual amount he owes the state of Florida, it may be an amount beyond his ability to pay.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThis testimony laid bare a basic but irrefutable fact: It\u2019s very difficult or impossible for many people with felony convictions in Florida to pay their LFOs. That\u2019s both because they cannot afford to pay the LFOs and because the state is unable to tell them through any centralized system how much they owe.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAlthough Covid-19 wasn\u2019t addressed directly, the testimony also made clear that the crisis only makes Florida\u2019s chaos around voting rights worse. The \u003Cem\u003EJones\u003C\/em\u003E trial is being held telephonically because courts have been \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.floridasupremecourt.org\/Emergency\u0022\u003Eclosed for non-essential services\u003C\/a\u003E in light of the public health emergency. For those same reasons, returning citizens will struggle to get help or information from court officials like the clerk who testified yesterday, and other offices are unlikely to be open to take payments.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EEven before the coronavirus outbreak, some Florida citizens were too poor to pay restitution, fines, and fees. Now, as the state\u2019s recordkeeping proves unprepared to navigate SB 7066 and hundreds of thousands of people\u0027s voting rights hang in the balance, Florida must ensure voting rights in the context of a global pandemic. The court\u2019s ruling will have enormous implications for the constitutional and human right to vote in Florida as the Covid-19 crisis rages on.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EAlison Leal Parker is managing director of the US Program at Human Rights Watch.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n\u003C\/div\u003E\n","settings":null},{"command":"insert","method":"prepend","selector":".js-view-dom-id-blog_live_feed__blog_body_block__375187__en","data":"","settings":null}]