Billionaire and failed presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg raised more than $16 million to help former felons in Florida regain their voting rights.
A recently upheld 2018 Florida constitutional amendment that permits many felons who have finished their sentences to regain their right to vote as long as they’ve paid off any outstanding fines, fees, or restitution, and Bloomberg, in partnership with Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, paid off the debts owed by 32,000 felons, according to Axios.
“The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy and no American should be denied that right,” the former New York City mayor said through a spokesperson. “Working together with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, we are determined to end disenfranchisement and the discrimination that has always driven it.”
People who were eligible to have their debt paid off included those who were already registered to vote, black or Latino, and had fines and fees of less than $1,500.
Nearly two-thirds of Florida voters in November 2018 approved Amendment 4, which restored voting rights for felons, excluding those convicted of murder and sexual assault, after completing their sentences.
Earlier this month, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s ruling that the requirement that Floridians with past felony convictions pay all legal obligations to be eligible to vote was tantamount to a poll tax. Chief Judge William Pryor wrote in the majority opinion that “it promotes full rehabilitation of returning citizens and ensures full satisfaction of the punishment imposed for the crimes by which felons forfeited the right to vote.”
