In November 2018, Florida voters passed a resolution, Amendment 4, that allows the 1.4 million people with felony convictions in their state who have served all the terms of their conviction to regain their right to vote. Amendment 4 passed with 65 percent of the vote—a mandate from the people of Florida. Like the brave civil rights activists of the 1960s who organized to overturn Jim Crow laws, Desmond Meade and other leaders of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) have led the charge to upend a system that disenfranchises millions of voters, through their advocacy around Amendment 4 and then working to register newly eligible voters. While comprising only 13 percent of Florida’s electorate, African Americans make up about 45 percent of the state’s incarcerated population, numbers that cascade to marginalize thousands of families. The amendment’s passage was a proud victory for the FRRC.
Today, the Senate Rules Committee in Florida are voting on SB7086, a bill meant to undermine Amendment 4.
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