Former Criminals to Help Choose America's Next President

Nov. 3, 2008 — -- Convicted criminals, voting rights and a horse race too close to call. In Florida, the interplay between former felons' right to vote and an election that could hinge on a few handfuls of ballots raises concerns in a state that may once again decide the next president.

In October, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found that more than 30,000 felons in the state who should have been stripped of their right to vote have remained registered on the voting rolls -- including 5,600 still in prison. And rights activists argue that thousands of felons who should have had their rights restored under Florida's new felon clemency rules are still being kept off eligible voter rolls.

State Attorney General Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson have both raised alarms about the potential for voter fraud related to ineligible felons voting Nov. 4, but so far, instances of such fraud have remained isolated. Bronson is a member of the state's clemency board, which has final say over issues regarding felons' rights. The board voted 3-1 in 2007 to automatically restore the voting rights for most nonviolent felons. McCollum was the sole dissenter.

Bronson was quoted in the St. Petersburg Times in October saying that the "biggest disenfranchisement" would be that noncitizens or criminals cast ballots this election year, potentially canceling out legitimate votes.

However, others are crying foul for a different reason -- that despite recent reforms, many felons who should have had their voting rights restored still remain disenfranchised.

"What we have is still a burden placed on people with past felony convictions in Florida that isn't placed on people in other states," said Muslima Lewis, an attorney with the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "Most people in the state with past felony convictions are unjustly deprived of the right to vote."

Lewis said that the state has done a poor job in keeping its voter rolls updated -- restoring rights to nonviolent felons who have been released and removing incarcerated felons from the database of eligible voters.