"Florida elections chief disputes report of high number of felon voters"

]blockquote]Florida elections chief disputes report of high number of felon voters
By DARA KAM

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

TALLAHASSEE — After being criticized for removing eligible voters from the voting rolls during the past two presidential elections, Florida officials responded today to a news report about the opposite scenario - allowing possibly tens of thousands of convicted felons to cast ballots in the Nov. 4 general election.

Secretary of State Kurt Browning told Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet this morning that he does not know how many convicted felons - who are ineligible to vote under state law - are registered voters and how many will be allowed to actually vote next month.

Browning, appointed by Crist in 2007, said his office had identified 108,000 registered voters who potentially are felons.

When asked later if his staff would be able to scrub that list prior to Election Day, Browning said: "No."

But he said that checks of the names of the 108,000 registered voters against state records found that a "relatively low" number actually were felons and thus prohibited from voting.

"We believe the majority of those folks ... on that file are not convicted felons," he told reporters after his presentation.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/10/14/1014felonsvoting.html

What does "potentially are felons" mean?

Okay, so FL law states that felons can't vote until their right is reinstated.

So why does the process of getting voting rights reinstated have to be such a trauma?

And why is it so difficult for the Sec of State to make sure that felons aren't permitted to vote without disenfranchising innocent people? Seems to me it would just take setting up a database of the details on convicted felons at the time they're sentenced, and another of the details of convicted felons who've had their right reinstated, and cross-matching them. Yeah it would take HARD WORK, but Repubs claim they aren't afraid of that.

Repubs know the answers to both these questions, and it has everything to do with their desire to suppress Dem votes.

Now it is nearly routine in most cases where a felon has completed their sentence and stayed out of trouble. They just have to apply to a board and it is almost a rubber stamp process - in fact it looks like it is nearly automatic for most felons getting out of the system: https://fpc.state.fl.us/FAQClemency.htm

Unfortunately most people do not know that it is much easier now than in the past. The Obama campaign and other people registering new voters have been spreading the word and handing out the forms to apply for restoration of rights for months.

The hard part in verifying a felon has had their rights restored is not for those who have had it done in the last couple of years - those people are in a database that is easily checked online (https://fpcweb.fpc.state.fl.us/). But those who had their rights restored by executive mandate or other means have to be researched through any number of other sources which takes much more time.

Well, I don't know any felons. But the info may come in handy.

As Repubs go, I don't mind Crist too much. He's been okay for FL so far. I'm just very glad McSame didn't select him as his running mate; I think the more moderate Repub ticket that would have resulted in would have given Obama some trouble.

They had the info about how convicted felons could get their rights back and I went to the links they gave us and read about it. Crist seems comparatively good but that is partly because he followed Jeb Bush. We've had much better governors - I liked Bob Graham a lot.

And yes, you're right -- Crist is a freath of bresh air after Jeb. lol