Florida felon voting rights imperiled amid GOP opposition
Reported by Gary Fineout and Ursula Perano
TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature is moving to roll back parts of a historic November constitutional amendment that reinstated voting rights for convicted felons, drawing sharp opposition from Democrats in a key 2020 presidential battleground.
A bill that would limit voting rights that ex-offenders gained under the ballot measure cleared its first stop in a Republican-controlled Florida House committee on a party-line vote Tuesday, and the president of the state Senate said he expects his chamber to draw up a companion measure.
Democrats and others condemned the move, likening the legislation to a poll tax imposed on African-Americans during the Jim Crow era.
