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Florida Lets Most Felons Regain Voting Rights
 Gov. Charlie Crist persuaded Floridas clemency board today to let most felons easily regain their voting rights after prison, saying it was time to leave the offensive ranks of states that uniformly deny ex-offenders such rights.The change is a major step for Florida, which bans more people from the polls than any other state, but it is not as drastic as Mr. Crist had hoped. Two of his fellow Republicans on the clemency board rejected his original plan to grant speedy restoration to everyone except murderers and sex criminals. Florida has as many as 950,000 disenfranchised ex-offenders, far more than any other state, of whom the vast majority are black. Other states have repealed or scaled back similar bans in recent years, but roughly five million former felons remain barred from the polls nationwide. Until now in Florida, most felons who finished prison and probation time had to submit to a lengthy review and waiting period if they wanted their civil rights back. But under the new rules passed today, the roughly 80 percent of ex-offenders whose crimes were not violent will win automatic rights restoration as long as they have paid any restitution owed to victims and have no pending criminal charges. Posted by: Fred 2007-04-06 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=185054 |