[Vision2020] Felons 4 Obama: Change You Can Believe In

[No Weatherman]

Strangely, the word ACORN never appears in this story.

Many convicted felons remain on voter rolls, according to Sun Sentinel
investigation
Thousands who should be ineligible are registered to vote
Reported by Peter Franceschina, Sally Kestin, John Maines, Megan
O'Matz and Dana Williams Written by Sally Kestin
October 12, 2008

More than 30,000 Florida felons who by law should have been stripped
of their right to vote remain registered to cast ballots in this
presidential battleground state, a Sun Sentinel investigation has
found.

Many are faithful voters, with at least 4,900 turning out in past elections.

Another 5,600 are not likely to vote Nov. 4 — they're still in prison.

Of the felons who registered with a party, Democrats outnumber
Republicans more than two to one.

Florida's elections chief, Secretary of State Kurt Browning,
acknowledged his staff has failed to remove thousands of ineligible
felons because of a shortage of workers and a crush of new
registrations in this critical swing state.

Browning said he was not surprised by the newspaper's findings. "I'm
kind of shocked that the number is as low as it is," he said.

Asked how many ineligible felons may be on Florida's rolls, Browning
said, "We don't know."

The Division of Elections has a backlog of more than 108,000 possible
felons who have registered to vote since January 2006 that it hasn't
had the time or staff to verify. Browning estimated that about 10
percent, once checked, would be ineligible.

"This is part of a big mess," said Jeff Manza, professor of sociology
at New York University and author of a book on felon voting. "It's
almost certain there will be challenges if the election is close
enough that things hinge on this. Both parties are armed to the teeth
with legal talent in all the battleground states."

Florida's felon ban originated before the Civil War, and today the
state remains one of 10 that restrict some felons from voting even
after they've served their time. The law requires state and county
elections officials to remove felons from voter rolls after conviction
and add them only when they've won clemency to restore their voting
rights.

In 2007, the state eased the restrictions by granting automatic
clemency to most nonviolent offenders who have completed their
sentences. Others, including people convicted of federal offenses,
multiple felonies or crimes such as drug trafficking, murder and sex
charges, must still apply for clemency and have their cases reviewed.

The felons the Sun Sentinel identified never received clemency, but
their names remain on Florida's voter rolls. Some are well-known:
ex-Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne and ex-Palm Beach County Commissioner
Tony Masilotti, for instance, both convicted last year of public
corruption.

Browning said the state painstakingly checks all voters before
removing them to avoid inadvertently taking off eligible voters as
happened in two previous large-scale purge attempts.

"The policy of this department, this state, is that we will err on the
side of the voter," he said.

Florida registers voters largely on an honor system, asking applicants
to affirm on a signed form that they are not convicted felons or that
their rights have been restored. State law requires the Elections
Division to conduct criminal records checks only after voters are
added to the rolls, and it takes months or even years to remove those
who are ineligible, the Sun Sentinel found.

"It's scandalous, really," said Lance deHaven-Smith, professor of
public policy at Florida State University. "Why do they have to cull
the rolls after they get registered? They shouldn't get on the rolls
in the first place."

Felons confused
Several felon voters interviewed by the Sun Sentinel expressed
confusion over automatic clemency and said they thought their voting
rights had been restored. Some said they merely signed registration
forms that were filled out by volunteers.

"If I wasn't able to vote, they wouldn't have given me my [voter
registration] card," said John A. Henderson, 55, a Hallandale Beach
Democrat. "I voted the last time and the times before that."

Henderson served about a year in prison in the late 1990s for battery
and trafficking in cocaine. He said he was unaware he needed to
formally apply to restore his rights when he successfully registered
to vote in 2002. Henderson has since cast ballots in at least six
elections and received three updated voter ID cards from the Broward
Supervisor of Elections Office, records show.

Broward elections officials were unaware of Henderson's criminal
record and did not check it when he registered, said county elections
spokeswoman Mary Cooney. Nonetheless, she said he will remain on the
rolls "until we are directed otherwise to remove him."

Maintaining accurate voting rolls is up to the state Division of
Elections, which has failed to effectively remove felons for years.

Most recently, in 2006, the Auditor General recommended the division
conduct a "comprehensive check" of all registered voters against lists
of convicted felons, a step the state still has not taken, Browning
acknowledged.

In response to auditors, the division said running the search "would
not be a problem," but it lacked the manpower to verify possible
matches. "Staff further stated that they were busy full-time" checking
newly registered felons.

Once voters are added to the rolls, the state's procedure for removing
them is tedious and labor-intensive. The Florida Department of Law
Enforcement runs daily checks of criminal records against new voters
and those who have made changes to their registrations, sending
possible matches to the Elections Division.

Elections staff then manually check each one, a process that involves
three to five workers reviewing records, comparing driver's license
and prison photos and verifying convictions. Confirmed matches are
sent to the counties for removal.

Since January 2006, more than 1.6 million new voters have registered
in Florida. FDLE identified more than 124,000 possible felons.

In that time, elections workers removed about 7,200 from voter rolls
statewide. Broward County took off just 232 and Palm Beach County 31.

"We do want to make sure . . . that we have the right voter," Browning said.

Elections workers are now reviewing more than 3,800 possible felon
voters but have more than 108,000 others still to be checked. "We've
not touched those records yet," Browning said.

Asked how long it will take to review them all, he said, "I don't have
a clue. I really don't."

Recently registered
John Teate, who lives west of Boca Raton, remains on the voter rolls
after registering as a Democrat in July despite felony drug and theft
convictions dating to the early 1990s. He said someone he thinks was a
Democratic supporter signed him up while he waited for a bus at the
central terminal in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

"I said, 'I'm a convicted felon. I can't vote,'" recalled Teate, 45.
"I figured when the paperwork came in, there would be a red flag."

A spokesman for Barack Obama's campaign said it is unlikely his
volunteers signed up Teate because his name is not in a database of
new voters they registered.

Teate hasn't voted and said he doesn't plan to.

It's a third-degree felony for ineligible voters to knowingly cast
ballots and for campaign workers and voters to submit false
registration forms. Prosecutors and elections officials in South
Florida could not recall any prosecutions related to felons
registering or voting in recent years.

Henderson, the Hallandale Beach voter, said he does not think his
criminal record should keep him from voting.

"I paid my debt," Henderson said. "Just because I was incarcerated,
that means I'm nothing now? I'm still a father. I got two kids I'm
raising."

Evan Snow, a West Palm Beach Republican, agrees. Convicted of
burglary, battery and other crimes dating to the 1980s, Snow said he
sought clemency several years ago but was discouraged by the lengthy
process and gave up.

Snow, 46, registered to vote in June. He said he plans to cast a
ballot Nov. 4 but hasn't decided which presidential candidate to
support.

"Everybody is getting interested in politics right now," he said. "We
are all here together. Shouldn't we all be able to make a decision
about who runs the place?"

To civil rights advocates, the troubled system is an argument to
change the state's constitution to automatically restore voting rights
to all felons who complete their sentences.

As of mid-September, about 118,000 mostly nonviolent offenders had
received automatic clemency under the 2007 change. For more than 9,700
of them, it didn't matter — their names had never been removed from
the voter rolls.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flbfelons1012sboct12,0,3762352.story