Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

FL Amendment Aims to Restore Rights to 1.5 Mil Ex-Felons

A sign outside of an Orlando center Election Day
Erik Hersman
/
Flickr
A sign outside of an Orlando center Election Day

After a petition was signed by nearly 850,000 Floridians, the decision of whether or not voting rights will be restored to former felons in the state is now in the hands of the people.

It comes in the form of Amendment 4 on the upcoming November ballot. The amendment needs 60 percent of the vote to become law, but that might not be a problem, according to a new bipartisan poll that shows nearly three-quarters of voters support it.

Estimates say, if passed, it could restore rights to nearly 1.5 million ex-felons.

100,000 people had their rights restored under former Gov. Charlie Crist, but automatic restoration ended soon after Gov. Rick Scott took office.

That’s just scratching the surface of the uphill battle to this point, as Neil Volzcan surely speak to. Volz isthe political director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, and he joins Gulf Coast Live to talk about how Amendment 4 made it to the ballot in the first place.

Copyright 2018 WGCU

RachelIacovoneis a reporter and associate producer ofGulf Coast LiveforWGCU News. Rachel came toWGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.
Julie Glenn is the host of Gulf Coast Live. She has been working in southwest Florida as a freelance writer since 2007, most recently as a regular columnist for the Naples Daily News. She began her broadcasting career in 1993 as a reporter/anchor/producer for a local CBS affiliate in Quincy, Illinois. After also working for the NBC affiliate, she decided to move to Parma, Italy where she earned her Master’s degree in communication from the University of Gastronomic Sciences. Her undergraduate degree in Mass Communication is from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Mike Kiniry is producer of Gulf Coast Live, and co-creator and host of the WGCU podcast Three Song Stories: Biography Through Music. He first joined the WGCU team in the summer of 2003 as an intern while studying Communication at Florida Gulf Coast University.