Florida Republicans Take Aim At Efforts To Pay Felons’ Fines So They Can Vote

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Then-Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is pictured on March 3 in Miami. Bloomberg helped raise money to pay off felons’ fines so they can vote in Florida.

Brynn Anderson/AP

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Brynn Anderson/AP

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Undaunted, the head of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, Desmond Meade, says his group went to work raising money to help felons pay those costs.

«We’ve helped over 4,000 people be able to satisfy their legal financial obligation. And what we’ve seen so far is an average of about $1,000 per person,» Meade says.

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This week Bloomberg, a former Democratic presidential candidate, signed on to the campaign and raised more than $16 million for the fund. That gets Meade’s group close to the goal of $25 million it set to get fines paid so felons could register to vote by Florida’s Oct. 5 deadline.

It’s an effort that’s been supported by celebrities including John Legend and LeBron James. In a memo reported by the Washington Post, the Bloomberg organization said it views donations to the fund as a «cost-effective way of adding votes to the Democratic column.»

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Desmond Meade, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, arrives with family members at the Supervisor of Elections office in Orlando in January 2019 to register to vote. Meade’s group works to restore voting rights to felons.

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John Raoux/AP

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Meade says while other are focused on the election and politics, for him, something larger is at stake — helping people reclaim their place in society.

He talks about a father and son who were stunned that strangers were willing to pay their outstanding fines.

«They were able to call the clerk directly and the clerk was able to say, ‘Yes, sir you have a zero balance.’ And once they heard that, both father and son started crying,» Meade recalls.

Because of his activism on restoring voting rights to felons, Meade is well-known in Florida and nationally. He was recognized last year as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. His work upended a system that permanently disenfranchised an estimated million and a half people in Florida.

Like tens of thousands of others, Meade paid his fines and legal fees and has voted. But this week, he was back before Florida’s governor and other members of the state’s Clemency Board, asking for his own past criminal offenses to be pardoned.

He told the panel, «I fight so that everyone can overcome their past mistakes, so everyone can have an opportunity to [know] what it feels like to be a complete citizen again.»

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared unmoved, saying only that he would take Meade’s request for a pardon «under consideration.»