Day 2 of the #JonesvDeSantis trial done. What have we learned so far? A lot! Mostly we've learned that the State of Florida is wedded to defending a system of poll taxes that they don't even know how to implement.
We started with the inspiring testimony of Plaintiff Moreland. Ms. Moreland and people like her are why we are fighting this fight. After #Amendment4 passed, she registered to vote. But later in 2019, she found out she still owes $$ from a yrs old conviction.
Under this new law, these fines and fees would stand in the way of her ability to vote. #polltax And even though @GovRonDeSantis lost in every court so far on this law, she was removed from the rolls earlier this year. While she has been reinstated, so many others are at risk.
Ms. Moreland votes for her children -- one of whom voted for #amendment4 to reenfranchise her mom.
Then we heard from @electionsmith who put Ms. Moreland's story in context. She is one of hundreds of thousands of others who would be disenfranchised under this law because they simply cannot pay.
@electionsmith testified that nearly 80% of people who have completed their felony sentences in Florida still owe the state $$. But money should never be a barrier to the ballot box.
He also reminded us that the State's system of enforcing this terrible law is a #hotmess , including a #trainwreck of a voter registration form.
Next we heard from the extraordinary Dr. Burch. She's never been an expert witness before but you would never have suspected that!
Dr. Burch conducted a careful study of how people with convictions would go about finding out what they owe and trying to pay what stands in the way of their vote.
What were her findings? #sb7066 makes voting contingent on a byzantine maze of inconsistent records, unavailable bureaucracy, surcharge after surcharge, fee after fee, collections agencies, all of which often lead in hopeless circles.
Honestly #kafkaesque is a generous term for the "system" Dr. Burch found when an army of trained PhD students tried to investigate the felony conviction files of a sample of people in Florida. How are everyday folks supposed to navigate this?
At a particularly shocking moment of the first day, counsel for the state had to correct themselves because even they were not clear on who can or cannot vote when records are unclear. This is the SECOND time that has happened in this case.
That all in Day 1. Day 2: We heard from two public defenders and a leader of the @LWVFlorida. I know this case well, but hearing it from the public defender perspective was still so shocking.
The story the public defenders had to tell was one too familiar to too many: a criminal justice system that is funded by fines & fees imposed on poor defendants, a system where prosecutors wont agree to community service b/c fees fund their offices #jonesvdesantis
A system where the state funds some of its most important functions on the backs of poor people of color. And with poor results to boot. Since their collection rate is unsurprisingly about 20% -- that's what happens when you try to wring blood from a stone.
And now the right to vote would hinge on payment of these fines and fees that the state KNOWS will never be paid. Indeed their own projections expect them not to be paid.
There was a lot more from these PDs as well -- detailing the plights of their clients, the herculean efforts they've had to make to help returning citizens access records, and the illusory nature of so many of the "fixes" the state touts.
And we closed with the powerful testimony from @LWVFlorida , who reminded us that the promise of #amendment4 will be broken until we fix this. The @LWVFlorida & so many other groups want to go out & engage the returning citizens that over 60% of Floridians voted to reenfranchise.
But they will be hamstrung by a broken system until we right these wrongs and stop basing the right to vote on whether the state has collected its fee. Day 3: here we come. #jonesvdesantis
