Voting Rights Restoration Efforts in Florida

Litigation and administrative advocacy

Representing more than 613,000 people who had fully served their sentences on felony convictions but who were still barred from the polls in Florida, the Brennan Center challenged that state’s permanent disenfranchisement provision in Johnson v. Bush. Although that challenge failed in federal court, the case was an important vehicle for pressuring Florida policymakers to stop illegal purges of the voter rolls and to restore the right to vote. The Center drew upon documents discovered during the course of the litigation to prevent the state from using a flawed list of suspected “felons” as the basis for a purge of eligible voters before the November 2004 election.

Public education efforts

Additionally, record materials from Johnson contain invaluable information on the scope and harms of permanent felony disenfranchisement in Florida. Based in part on that information, we created a fact sheet that documents racial bias in Florida’s criminal justice system and explains how the voting ban imports this bias into the electoral system. An additional fact sheet presents the racist origins of felony disenfranchisement in post-Civil War Florida. Our state partners use these materials to advance their advocacy of voting rights.

Legislative and Administrative Reform

Thanks in part to the attention generated by Johnson v. Bush, in April 2007 Governor Charlie Crist led Florida’s state clemency board in easing the voting rights restoration process. Under Florida’s new clemency rules, some people with felony convictions, including many of those incarcerated for drug related offenses, will automatically regain their right to vote after completion of their sentence.