Power Tripping 101

When you have a GOP super-majority, you use it to remove as many minority voters from the rolls as possible.  Florida's GOP Gov. Rick Scott knows how to play this game.

In less than an hour yesterday, Florida Governor Rick Scott denied the right to vote to hundreds of thousands, maybe as many as a million, Florida citizens, turning back the clock decades and making Florida the most punitive state in the country when it comes to disenfranchising people with criminal convictions in their past.

The Florida constitution denies the right to vote for life to anyone with a felony conviction, unless he is granted clemency by the governor. Essentially it gives the governor, an elected official, the power to decide who will (or won't) be allowed to vote in the next election. 

The new clemency rules not only roll back reforms passed by former Governor Charlie Crist, they are far more restrictive than those in place under former Governor Jeb Bush. Under the new rules:

• People with even nonviolent convictions must wait five years after they complete all terms of their sentence before even being allowed to apply for restoration of civil rights.
• The clock resets if an individual is arrested for even a misdemeanor during that five-year period, even if no charges are ever filed.
• Some people must wait seven years before being able to apply, and must appear for a hearing before the clemency board.
• A provision allowing people to apply for a waiver of the rules, in place under Bush and Crist, was eliminated.
• Everyone applying for clemency must provide various documents with their application - Bush and Crist had made an exception for those applying for restoration of civil rights.

All of this has to happen just to have the opportunity to ask for one's rights back. Even after the waiting period, the application, and the hearing, anyone could be summarily denied with no reason or explanation. And if that happens, he would have to wait another two years before he can start the process all over again.

And considering African-Americans make up more than half of Florida's prison population as well as more than half of Florida's ex-cons and 16% of Florida's overall population, well you see why southern states have traditionally made it impossible for felons who have served their time to be able to vote, the practice stretches back to Jim Crow days.  Scott's just going back to what works as far as being able to legally disenfranchise the black vote in the state, particularly the black male vote in the state.

Gotta keep that super-majority in any way possible, you know.