{"id":138358,"date":"2019-03-20T20:15:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T02:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=138358"},"modified":"2019-03-20T20:15:43","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T02:15:43","slug":"voting-rights-you-don-need-no-steenking-voting-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/20\/voting-rights-you-don-need-no-steenking-voting-rights.html","title":{"rendered":"“Voting Rights? You don’ need no steenking Voting Rights!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ah, Florida …<\/p>\n

Florida voters managed to pull off a coup in the 2018 election, passing by a nearly a 2-1 majority Amendment 4 to the state constitution, saying that felons would have their voting rights restored as soon as they completed their sentence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was a vote decision that was widely feared by the GOP, because it would potentially re-enfranchise 1.4 million Floridians, and the GOP assumes that a majority of them will vote for Democrats, which is enough to tip the very narrow balance of partisan power in Florida away from the Republicans.<\/p>\n

So, of course, they’re gutting the law.<\/p>\n

“But, Dave,” you might say, “this is a state constitutional amendment — how can they override that?” Great question!<\/p>\n

Answer: by deciding that the amendment actually needs enacting legislation, and by crafting that legislation to say that you can’t have your franchise back until you’ve fully paid all the thousands of dollars of fees related to your trial, your court time, your prison time, your prison medical care, all sorts of fees that the state of Florida has imposed to (a) pay for a justice system without taxing the taxpayers, and (b) saddle ex-cons with debts they cannot pay off.<\/p>\n

As a result it’s estimated that at least half, if not more, of those disenfranchised felons that the majority of Floridians thought should be re-enfranchised … will remain disenfranchised.<\/p>\n

“But, Dave,” you might say, “how can they get away with that?” Another great question.<\/p>\n

It’s easy.<\/p>\n

The GOP has the majority of both houses of the state legislature.<\/p>\n

The GOP has the governorship (through a headline-narrow margin in 2018).<\/p>\n

The GOP, thanks to the actions of that governor, now have a 6-1 lock on the state supreme court, too.<\/p>\n

The “enacting legislation” is thus expected to be passed, signed, and be immune to state court challenge.<\/p>\n

See, it’s easy to keep power and defy the will of the voters, if you know how and don’t mind being shameless about it.<\/p>\n

Do you want to know more?<\/em> Florida Republicans are sabotaging Amendment 4.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s easy to bypass the will of the people when you control the state government<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1140,358,347],"tags":[125,1804],"class_list":["post-138358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elections-2018","category-poor-citizenship","category-voting-rights","tag-gop","tag-voting-rights"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/florida-amendment-4-2018.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":39497,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/01\/just-in-case-there-was-any-doubt-about-polling-place-reform.html","url_meta":{"origin":138358,"position":0},"title":"Just in case there was any doubt about polling place reform","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 1-Nov-13 11:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Why has the GOP been so gung-ho about curbing early voting and extended voting hours? Is it to save costs and somehow avoid fraud? \u00a0Nah. It's to reduce voting by Democrats. Don't believe me? Ask some folks who used to be in the GOP power structure, but now aren't. Former\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49865,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/17\/set-up-the-vote.html","url_meta":{"origin":138358,"position":1},"title":"Set Up the Vote","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-Mar-15 1:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I would consider proportional voting for President f it were done on a national basis; while it's being voted for only in those GOP-led states that have tended to vote majority Democrat in presidential elections, it's clearly just manipulation the rules in one's favor.But I'd rather see spotty state proportional\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3508,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/11\/05\/ive_got_issues.html","url_meta":{"origin":138358,"position":2},"title":"I’ve got issues","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 5-Nov-02 1:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Fortunately, today they're on the ballot, here in beeyooteeful Colorado. Referendum A - Exempt District Attorneys from Term Limits. Term limits are stupid. I understand the sentiment behind them, but...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31127,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/04\/waiting-to-vote.html","url_meta":{"origin":138358,"position":3},"title":"Waiting to vote","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 4-Nov-12 9:53am","format":false,"excerpt":"When we see long lines of folks queued up to vote in Third World nations, we applaud their civic spirit, we admire their zeal to have their voices heard, we celebrate their devotion to democracy.When it happens in Florida, the GOP secretary of state tries to figure out excuses not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33435,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/30\/a-splendid-civics-lesson-from-the-gop-to-todays-youth.html","url_meta":{"origin":138358,"position":4},"title":"A splendid civics lesson from the GOP to today's youth","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 30-Apr-13 8:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Though it is legal (indeed, constitutionally mandated, per the Supreme Court) for college students to register and vote in the college communities they are temporarily attending, that just doesn't sit right with some state GOP legislatures. So they keep trying to find ways to discourage it, like:- Not letting parents\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11335,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/09\/19\/voting_rights_redux.html","url_meta":{"origin":138358,"position":5},"title":"Voting Rights Redux","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Sep-07 2:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Senate GOP minority blocked (through filibuster threat) a move to give District of Columbia residents congressional representation through some crazy-ass arrangement splitting the representation with Utah (the idea being...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138360,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138358\/revisions\/138360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}