The state of Florida, home to retirees from around the country, voted Republican Rick Scott to two terms as governor. The irony is rich here, as Scott is still the record holder for Medicare fraud. Governor Scott, now running for U.S. Senate, knows that Republicans cannot win elections if everyone votes.
Florida has more than a million-and-a-half residents who cannot vote because of a law disenfranchising convicted felons. On the ballot in 2018 is Amendment 4 that would restore voting rights to those who have completed their sentences. (This would not apply if convicted of murder or sex crimes.) Polling gives the amendment a fair chance of passing by the required sixty-percent margin.
The current system makes an ex-con eligible five years after release to petition the governor’s clemency board for restoration of voting rights. In his eight years as governor, Rick Scott has rejected 16,000 applications. Big surprise: declared Republicans were three times as successful having their voting rights restored as Democrats. The percentage of African-Americans who regained their right was the lowest in fifty years.
With a week to go before the election, polls show Scott in a dead heat with incumbent Senator Bill Nelson.
Here is John Oliver’s overview of Amendment 4.
