July, 2004 | People for the American Way
On July 1, People For the American Way Foundation received from the Florida Division of Elections an electronic copy of a list of more than 47,000 registered Florida voters who the Division thinks may be ineligible to vote because of felony convictions. This list is now a public record available for inspection and copying by anyone as a result of the decision on July 1 by the Leon County Circuit Court in CNN v. Florida Department of State. The Supervisor of Elections in each Florida county has the list, and may use it as part of the basis to purge voters from the registration rolls. The state has admitted, however, that there may very well be errors on the list. For example, the Miami Herald reported on July 2 that there are more than 2100 voter names erroneously on the list because they have received clemency and their rights have been restored. Others erroneously on the list may well never have been convicted of a felony at all.
We have urged all county supervisors to independently verify the accuracy of the list. In addition, using this website, Florida voters can check for themselves to see if their names are wrongly included on the potential felon list and TAKE ACTION. Click here to check the list …