Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Florida voter forms still say felons cannot register to vote

Clarence Singleton, Florida felon eligible to register to vote

Voting rights advocates are complaining that Florida's voter registration forms are not clear that convicted felons who have completed their sentences, like Clarence Singleton, are automatically cleared to register and vote.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Voting rights activists in Florida are complaining to election officials because they believe the state's voter registration forms are not clear that convicted felons who have completed their sentences can now register to vote.

This is the latest dispute over implementation of the Amendment 4 ballot initiative passed by 65 percent of Florida voters last fall, revising the state's constitution to automatically restore voting rights for convicted felons.

Florida's registration forms and online registration system state that felons "cannot register until your right to vote is restored" – a continuation of the language used on the form prior to approval of the amendment.

Elsewhere — and less prominently — the forms do note that voting rights are restored upon completion of all terms of a sentence including parole and probation "pursuant to section 4, Art. VI of the Florida Constitution."

That's the change made by the ballot initiative, but advocates argue not many people are going to understand the legal reference.


Common Cause of Florida, the League of Women Voters and others have written letters to the Florida Department of State complaining about how changes in the registration forms were handled.

The Florida Legislature already stirred controversy when it passed legislation to implement the voter initiative that requires that ex-felons pay all fines and fees in order to have their voting rights restored.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

After that law was passed, officials discovered that it is difficult to determine whether a person has paid all the needed fines and fees because the information is maintained by a number of agencies.

A working group created to make recommendations to the Legislature on how that information should be collected met for the final time this week and is now working on a draft report.

In another related development, a hearing is scheduled for Monday at federal court in Florida on a request by several civil rights groups to temporarily block the legislation.

Advocates have equated the requirement with the now banned requirement that voters pay a poll tax. The poll tax was used, mainly in the South, to prevent poor, mostly black citizens from being able to register and vote.

Read More

"Vote" pin.
Getty Images, William Whitehurst

Most Americans’ Votes Don’t Matter in Deciding Elections

New research from the Unite America Institute confirms a stark reality: Most ballots cast in American elections don’t matter in deciding the outcome. In 2024, just 14% of eligible voters cast a meaningful vote that actually influenced the outcome of a U.S. House race. For state house races, on average across all 50 states, just 13% cast meaningful votes.

“Too many Americans have no real say in their democracy,” said Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano. “Every voter deserves a ballot that not only counts, but that truly matters. We should demand better than ‘elections in name only.’”

Keep ReadingShow less
Why America’s Elections Will Never Be the Same After Trump
text
Photo by Dan Dennis on Unsplash

Why America’s Elections Will Never Be the Same After Trump

Donald Trump wasted no time when he returned to the White House. Within hours, he signed over 200 executive orders, rapidly dismantling years of policy and consolidating control with the stroke of a pen. But the frenzy of reversals was only the surface. Beneath it lies a deeper, more troubling transformation: presidential elections have become all-or-nothing battles, where the victor rewrites the rules of government and the loser’s agenda is annihilated.

And it’s not just the orders. Trump’s second term has unleashed sweeping deportations, the purging of federal agencies, and a direct assault on the professional civil service. With the revival of Schedule F, regulatory rollbacks, and the targeting of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, the federal bureaucracy is being rigged to serve partisan ideology. Backing him is a GOP-led Congress, too cowardly—or too complicit—to assert its constitutional authority.

Keep ReadingShow less
One Lesson from the Elections: Looking At Universal Voting

A roll of "voted" stickers.

Pexels, Element5 Digital

One Lesson from the Elections: Looking At Universal Voting

The analysis and parsing of learned lessons from the 2024 elections will continue for a long time. What did the campaigns do right and wrong? What policies will emerge from the new arrangements of power? What do the parties need to do for the future?

An equally important question is what lessons are there for our democratic structures and processes. One positive lesson is that voting itself was almost universally smooth and effective; we should applaud the election officials who made that happen. But, many elements of the 2024 elections are deeply challenging, from the increasingly outsized role of billionaires in the process to the onslaught of misinformation and disinformation.

Keep ReadingShow less
MERGER: The Organization that Brought Ranked Choice Voting and Ended SuperPACs in Maine Joins California’s Nonpartisan Primary Pioneers

A check mark and hands.

Photo by Allison Saeng on Unsplash. Unsplash+ License obtained by the author.

MERGER: The Organization that Brought Ranked Choice Voting and Ended SuperPACs in Maine Joins California’s Nonpartisan Primary Pioneers

Originally published by Independent Voter News.

Today, I am proud to share an exciting milestone in my journey as an advocate for democracy and electoral reform.

Keep ReadingShow less