6 August 22-28, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | news | letters | coNteNts | WHERE’S THE OUTRAGE, RON? Trump just voted in Florida as a felon. BY ALEX DELUCA F lorida Gov. Ron DeSantis has long been criticized for making it difficult, if not impossible, for people convicted of felonies to vote in Florida. Unless, that is, you are former president Donald Trump. On Wednesday, August 14, Trump — who was found guilty earlier this summer of 34 felony counts while gearing up his 2024 pres- idential campaign — cast his ballot for the presidential primary election at a local Palm Beach County polling place near his home at Mar-a-Lago. This obviously raises some questions: Did Trump vote illegally? Will his vote count? What about his eligibility to vote in November? In Florida, voter eligibility for residents with out-of-state felony convictions hinges on their voting rights in the state where they were convicted, according to the ACLU. In this case, the state is New York, which has had a “simple, bright-line rule” since 2021: if you’re not im- prisoned, you can vote. Also in play is the issue of post-trial proceedings — a judge can with- hold a conviction, for example, allowing de- fendants to keep their voting rights. Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for Sep- tember 18, when he is set to find out whether he’ll serve jail time. So, as Trump’s case plays out in New York and he heads to the polls in Florida, has De- Santis reiterated his hardline stance about felon voting rights? Has he railed against lib- eral states and how their loose criminal jus- tice policies may permit convicted felons to abscond to Florida to cast votes? Not a peep. In June, DeSantis instead took to social media to vocally back Trump and embrace the former president’s right to vote in Florida hot off a felony conviction. “Former President Donald Trump hasn’t lost his voting rights in Florida. Rights are not removed in Florida where they haven’t yet been stripped in the convicting jurisdiction,” DeSantis said. DeSantis suggested that if Trump had any trouble in the voting process, he would lend him a hand. “Given the absurd nature of the New York prosecution of Trump, this would be an easy case to qualify for res- toration of rights per the Florida Clemency Board, which I chair,” DeSantis wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. DeSantis has been uncompromising on the voting rights of con- victed felons (other than Trump). In 2019, DeSantis signed a controversial bill that required convicted felons to settle court fees and debts related to their past criminal case before their voting rights could be restored. The governor was later sued in 2023 by voting rights group Florida Rights Restora- tion Coalition, which claimed that despite the 2018 amendment that lifted Florida’s lifetime voting ban for people with felony convictions, state officials have continued to disenfran- chise 1.4 million residents — around a quarter of the state’s eligible Black voters. The lawsuit claimed that DeSantis had led an aggressive campaign to sow confusion and fear among formerly incarcerated residents. “Through this campaign, the defendants have created a climate of intimidation even among people who believe in good faith that they are eligible to vote: a fear that they may be criminally prosecuted if their belief turns out to be wrong,” the lawsuit stated. “This effort, coupled with the earlier-created roadblocks to registration, has turned the simple act of vot- ing into a complicated and risky venture in the eyes of those who were re-enfranchised by Amendment 4, as well as others who have been affected by the defendants’ conduct.” DeSantis also made a spectacle of arresting more than a dozen former felons who alleg- edly cast ballots in the 2020 election despite having a disqualifying felony conviction. In Florida, a person convicted of murder or a sexual offense is ineligible to vote unless the state’s clemency board restores their right. For other felony convictions, a person is eligi- ble to register and vote if they’ve completed all terms of their sentence — meaning, if they completed their time in prison, jail, or parole and have paid all fines, fees, costs, and restitu- tion ordered as part of the felony sentence. However, as previously noted by ACLU of Florida staff attorney Nicholas Warren, the state never created a centralized way for these people to figure out how much they owe — or if they owe anything at all. “There is no simple way for a person who is coming out of their felony sentence to check whether they are eligible to vote,” War- ren told NPR. “And the rules are very compli- cated in Florida.” After a New York state court in May found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels — mak- ing him the first former president to be con- victed of felony crimes — Florida’s Republican governor decried the verdict. “Today’s verdict represents the culmina- tion of a legal process that has been bent to the political will of the actors involved: a left- ist prosecutor, a partisan judge, and a jury re- flective of one of the most liberal enclaves in America — all in an effort to ‘get’ Donald Trump,” DeSantis said. Trump has urged the New York court to postpone his sentencing until after the election. At least one expert, Philip Padovano, an appellate lawyer and former judge for the First District Court of Appeal, has expressed doubts about whether Trump was legally al- lowed to vote in Florida in the August pri- mary. Padovano told the Florida Bulldog he was “at a loss to understand where they are getting this concept of going by the laws of another state.” DeSantis’ office did not immediately re- spond to New Times’ request for comment. [email protected] On August 14, 2024, Donald Trump cast his ballot for the presidential primary election at a local Palm Beach County polling place near his home at Mar-a-Lago. Photo by Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images | METRO | “FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP HASN’T LOST HIS VOTING RIGHTS IN FLORIDA.” 1/4H
