Voting rights advocates, understandably weary as Trumpites invent ever more innovative ways to make it harder for reliably Democratic constituencies to vote, now howl that evil Republicans in Florida's legislature are undercutting the spirit of a constitutional amendment expanding voting rights to more than a million felons.
But the politicians are simply abiding by the language of a popular referendum passed overwhelmingly last November.
That read: "This amendment restores the voting rights of Floridians with felony convictions after they complete all terms of their sentence including parole or probation. The amendment would not apply to those convicted of murder or sexual offenses ... "
"All terms of their sentence" means all terms of their sentence. So when the bill putting that language into law came to the state's lawmakers, they found little wiggle room. The Republican majorities asserted that to qualify, felons must pay their court-ordered fees, fines and restitution to victims, while giving judges the discretion to waive costs.
Morally speaking, we object (given, again, GOP voting rights hostility elsewhere). We believe men and women who have done prison time and completed parole or probation should be free to cast ballots. It is cruel, smacking of a poll tax, to let those who have lost their freedom get the right to vote back, except when they find themselves too poor to pay a fine.
But legally speaking, words matter. Self-governing people must live with the messes they create: an ironically timely lesson for the Sunshine State's new voters.
