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DetlefK

(16,423 posts)
Thu Oct 10, 2019, 05:44 AM Oct 2019

"Pay your fines or we send you to jail. But we won't tell you how much you actually owe us."

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/7/1890798/-Florida-voters-gave-1-million-felons-voting-rights-Republicans-created-a-mess-to-stop-it

In 2018, Florida voters passed a ballot measure restoring the vote to more than 1 million people with felony convictions in their past. In 2019, Florida Republican lawmakers undermined the will of the voters by passing a law requiring people to pay all fines and fees related to their convictions, no matter how long in the past—basically, a poll tax. It’s also turning out to be more than a financial barrier, because the state isn’t telling people how much they owe. With the law allowing prosecution of people who don’t pay the full amount they don’t know they owe, this is a major, major problem. (And also just what Republicans wanted.)

Clifford Tyson was convicted of three felonies in the 1970s and 1990s. He’s now a 63-year-old pastor who wants to vote, but, despite getting legal help to find out how much he owes, he still doesn’t know. “The records, viewed by Reuters, show potential sums ranging from $846 to a couple thousand dollars,” with records for the same conviction showing wildly different fines and fees assessed. Tyson doesn’t want to go back to jail, so “Until there is clarity, as much as I want to vote, I won’t do it.”
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"Pay your fines or we send you to jail. But we won't tell you how much you actually owe us." (Original Post) DetlefK Oct 2019 OP
Huh? PoindexterOglethorpe Oct 2019 #1
In the South, there is a long shameful history of preventing black people from voting. yardwork Oct 2019 #8
not only is it a poll tax is akin to indentured slavery. nt Javaman Oct 2019 #11
And they wonder why people like me hate them so much. kag Oct 2019 #2
the last line says it all.. FM123 Oct 2019 #3
Whatever happened to "they paid their dues to society" ?? secondwind Oct 2019 #4
Paid their dues? RVN VET71 Oct 2019 #12
War on voting Python boot Oct 2019 #5
I was hoping that was a quote from the House oversight Committees, to tRump lackeys. Mc Mike Oct 2019 #6
Call the ACLU! n/t aggiesal Oct 2019 #7
FL Russian Repugs are vile creatures. lark Oct 2019 #9
This is the modern iteration of debtors prisons, something we fought a revolution over dlk Oct 2019 #10

PoindexterOglethorpe

(25,861 posts)
1. Huh?
Thu Oct 10, 2019, 06:48 AM
Oct 2019

Even in circumstances that have nothing to do with voting, how can you pay fines if you don't know how much they are?

The mind boggles.

yardwork

(61,622 posts)
8. In the South, there is a long shameful history of preventing black people from voting.
Thu Oct 10, 2019, 08:11 AM
Oct 2019

"Literacy tests" that were impossible for any human to pass, "poll taxes" that were imposed only on black people attempting to vote, etc., all kept black people from voting until Congress and the Supreme Court made these laws unconstitutional.

The Republicans are putting all the evil back. African Americans vote Democratic. There are lots of African Americans living in the South. Do the math.

kag

(4,079 posts)
2. And they wonder why people like me hate them so much.
Thu Oct 10, 2019, 06:55 AM
Oct 2019

Amazing how the GOP can have me siding with convicted felons over them.

FM123

(10,053 posts)
3. the last line says it all..
Thu Oct 10, 2019, 06:55 AM
Oct 2019
Republicans don’t want people to vote unless they’re rich and white, and they just keep putting up barriers to everyone else wherever they can find a way.

RVN VET71

(2,691 posts)
12. Paid their dues?
Thu Oct 10, 2019, 08:44 AM
Oct 2019

Who said anything about paying their dues, or forgiveness, or, for that matter fairness? In any GOP run territory -- any territory -- the idea is to squelch, to put down and keep down, anyone who isn't white and rich or, if not rich, white and stupid.

"Paid their dues" is a fairy tale told by an idiot. "A boot stomping endlessly on a human face," is the GOP's message to us all.

Kick all the bastards out in 2020, and hound them into oblivion.

Python boot

(74 posts)
5. War on voting
Thu Oct 10, 2019, 07:33 AM
Oct 2019

On September 28 Crystal Mason began serving a five year prison term for casting a provisional ballot in Texas. Her three children are left without their mother because Crystal had a felony in her past related to taxes.

Gillum and Nelson were robbed. Locating polling places inside of gated communities, providing too few voting machines in urban districts and many other dirty tricks plus conducting an election in the wake of a devastating hurricane all contributed to the repugs stealing that election. Kemp purging voter rolls in Georgia.

lark

(23,102 posts)
9. FL Russian Repugs are vile creatures.
Thu Oct 10, 2019, 08:25 AM
Oct 2019

They never do anything good unless their arms are twisted and their necks in a chokehold. This is just pure fuckery to screw the citizens of this state. I really hate DeSantis and the rw goons who pretend to represent anyone other than the extremely rich.

dlk

(11,566 posts)
10. This is the modern iteration of debtors prisons, something we fought a revolution over
Thu Oct 10, 2019, 08:32 AM
Oct 2019

The war on poor people never stops.

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