{"id":1144830,"date":"2023-07-20T15:09:38","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T15:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/?p=300610"},"modified":"2023-07-20T15:09:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T15:09:38","slug":"desantis-sued-for-aggressive-campaign-against-former-felons-seeking-to-restore-voting-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/07\/20\/desantis-sued-for-aggressive-campaign-against-former-felons-seeking-to-restore-voting-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis sued for \u2018aggressive campaign\u2019 against former felons seeking to restore voting rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This story originally appeared in Common Dreams<\/a> on July 19, 2023. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A voting rights group on Wednesday sued Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a> and other officials for what it called “illegal intimidation” of voters by intentionally making it difficult for former felons to determine their voting eligibility and using “election police” to “mount an aggressive campaign” against people who did not know they were ineligible to cast ballots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit\u2014filed in Miami federal court by Free and Fair Litigation Group, Arnold & Porter, and Weil Gotshal & Manges working pro bono on behalf of the Florida Rights Restoration Committee (FRRC) and individual voters\u2014alleges that state election officials “have created such a bureaucratic system around the implementation of Amendment 4 that it prevents Florida citizens from voting.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Florida’s failure to accept responsibility in determining voter eligibility hurts every Florida citizen.”
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Amendment 4 is an FFRC-led 2018 referendum approved<\/a> by nearly two-thirds of Florida voters reenfranchising 1.4 million people with past felony convictions. The stakes transcended Florida and criminal justice reform, as a botched state voter purge of purported former felons played what one federal civil rights commissioner called<\/a> an “outcome determinative” role in the 2000 U.S. presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Ever since the people of Florida passed a constitutional amendment to grant people with felony convictions a new right to vote, the governor and the state have done everything in their power to prevent those 1.4 million new voters from actually voting,” Carey Dunne of the Free and Fair Litigation Group said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Florida officials have engaged in a yearslong campaign to intimidate and prevent people with convictions from voting, as alleged in the complaint.

\ud83d\udcc4Read the doc: https:\/\/t.co\/ipbKJYeXyr<\/a><\/p>— Free and Fair Litigation Group (@FreeFairTweets) July 19, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote>