Senate committee OKs 2 Democrats’ bills to help felons regain voting rights

A pair of Democrat-sponsored bills clarifying the voting rights restoration process has advanced through the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

Sen. Tina Polsky’s SB 132 and Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis’ SB 748 won bipartisan support during Monday’s hearing.

Polsky’s bill would require the Florida Commission on Offender Review to create a public database by July 1, 2029 to keep track of whether ex-offenders have met all the requirements to get their voting rights reinstated. The database would be required to be updated monthly.

“Currently, Florida residents who are trying to determine their eligibility must contact multiple offices to determine the status of completion of their court-ordered sentences,” said Polsky, a Boca Raton Democrat. 

That means people are searching online or calling government offices or making multiple in-person visits in what Polsky called an “inefficient and confusing” process.

Polsky credited the late Sen. Geraldine Thompson who had been a staunch advocate for voting rights.

“Sen. Thompson was a champion for this for several years, and I’m very excited to hopefully continue the mantle all the way to the end,” Polsky said before her bill passed its first committee stop with a 7-0 vote. 

In 2018, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment to automatically restore voting rights to felons who completed their sentences. However, the state passed a 2019 law requiring people to pay off all their fines first.

Meanwhile, Bracy Davis, an Ocoee Democrat who won a Special Election to fill Thompson’s former seat, said her bill fixes a “very simple but important gap in our sentencing process.”

“Every felony sentence in Florida is calculated using a criminal punishment code score sheet. The score sheet determines prison time, probation, and length of sentence, but today that document tells the defendant nothing about how their conviction affects their right to vote,” she told the committee. “So Senate Bill 748 fixes that.”

Going forward, the sentencing score sheet would be updated with the constitutional language explaining what offenders must do to get their voting rights reinstated. Defendants would be required to receive a copy of the document before sentencing in all of Florida’s circuit courts.

Bracy Davis stressed her bill does not alter the rules for defendants to have their voting right restored; it just makes the process more transparent.

“It helps avoid confusion and unintentional violations that can occur when individuals misunderstand their eligibility,” she said as her bill also passed its first committee stop with a 7-0 vote.

The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and other groups supported the Democrats’ bills, each of which must clear two more committees to make it to the Senate floor.