Florida unveils changes to keep felons from voting

[Thom Little]

By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post
Friday, Dec. 02, 2005


By using photo and signature matches and online court records for the first time, Florida elections officials said Thursday they have come up with a more accurate system to target felons for removal from the state's voter rolls.

The state Division of Elections unveiled the new system here at a conference of county elections supervisors. The county chiefs, who use the state's data to determine whether to purge voters, seemed optimistic that the new procedures will prevent the widespread errors that led Florida to scrap its list of 48,000 potential felons in 2004.

The Florida Constitution imposes a lifetime voting ban on any person convicted of a felony unless that person has been granted clemency. The policy, among the most restrictive in the nation, was upheld last month when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case claiming the felon ban is racially discriminatory.



http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2005/12/02/a18a_felons_1202.html