Wry Catcher
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #101
It's all in the past we are told.
The Return of the Poll Tax in Florida
By The Editorial Board
A Republican proposal would condition the right to vote on the payment of all outstanding court fines and fees.
Florida voters approved a ballot measure in November to restore voting rights to up to 1.4 million people with felony convictions who have served their sentences and thus paid their debt to society. The passage of Amendment 4, which went into effect in January, righted 150 years of injustice.
But Republican lawmakers in the state immediately went to work to undermine that progress. On March 19, a state House panel on criminal justice approved, along party lines, a measure that would erect new roadblocks for the Floridians who just regained the right to vote.
The new proposal would require those who want their voting rights restored to first pay all outstanding court fees and costs arising from their prior convictions — a move that one Democratic lawmaker denounced as an unconstitutional poll tax.
Under Amendment 4, “any disqualification from voting arising from a felony conviction shall terminate and voting rights shall be restored upon completion of all terms of sentence including parole or probation.”
But Florida Republicans want “completion” of a sentence to include “a financial obligation arising from a felony conviction” — such as the court costs and fines that Florida is notorious for imposing on top of criminal sentences. This would, in effect, suppress the votes of people who are too poor to pay.
Opinion | The Return of the Poll Tax in Florida
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If the terms of the sentence included payment of fees and fines, what's your fucking problem?
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It is a poll tax. That aside, your side of the aisle are fools.
Let's consider you get a parking ticket, and choose to protest it. The protest takes time, and during that period an election occurs and you are sent away without the ability to vote.