FLORIDA SLOW TO REINSTATE FORMER FELONS' VOTING RIGHTS

ST. PETERSBURG -- As Blake Blake stepped inside Cole's Barber Shop, a
three-chair enterprise in a strip mall in the heart of this city's black
community, he was confronted with the question of the day.

"Blake, can you vote?"

Glaring at barbers Craig Latimer and Victor Davis, Blake, an unemployed
ex-felon, responded: "You know I can't vote. What's this, comedy day in the
barbershop?"

The remark drew laughter and a round of "told-you-sos" from the
barbershop's entourage, mostly men once convicted of felonies who have paid
their debt to society but still do not have jobs or rights, including the
right to vote.

The St. Petersburg barbershop was one of numerous stops at black meeting
places during a five-day road trip across the state in August to gauge the
mood of black voters after the fiasco of the 2000 presidential election and
with primary and general elections looming.

Four million Americans will not be able to vote in November's elections,
including an estimated 13 percent of adult African-American males, because
of laws that deny voting rights to felons and ex-felons, according to The
Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that promotes
rehabilitation over incarceration.

While 48 states and the District of Columbia have laws prohibiting felons
from voting while in prison, Florida is one of only eight states where
convicted felons lose certain civil rights, including serving on a jury and
voting, and must apply to have their rights restored. But only in Florida
is the denial of rights engraved in the constitution.

Felons who have served their time must get clemency from the governor
before they can reclaim their rights. Since Jeb Bush has been governor, the
number of ex-felons whose rights have been restored has shrunk, according
to Florida Department of Corrections statistics.

In the past 15 years, the number of convicted felons who have had their
rights restored has dropped from 15,000 in 1986 under Gov. Bob Graham, to
927 in 2000, the last year for which statistics are available, under Bush.

An estimated 410,000 Floridians cannot vote because they are felons, more
than in any other state, according to the Florida Equal Voting Rights
Project, a joint program of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida,
Florida Legal Services and the Florida Justice Institute. More than a third
of these Floridians are black, according to the ACLU, although blacks make
up less than 15 percent of the state's population.

The disenfranchisement of ex-felons is "a civil rights crisis" in the
state, said Courtenay Strickland, the ACLU's voting rights project
coordinator. "Not only do felons lose the right to vote, they can't serve
on juries, hold public office or qualify for some state occupational
licenses," she said.

"Some ex-felons are devastated by this," Strickland said. "They are not
able to fully rehabilitate their lives. It's a matter of fundamental
fairness. They have served their time and should have the right to be full,
productive citizens."

Strickland said it takes at least six months to obtain rights restoration,
with some cases going on for a year or more. About 30,000 applications are
backlogged at the Office of Executive Clemency.

"The governor has streamlined the process to allow nonviolent felons, once
released, to regain voting rights much more easily," said Todd Harris,
Bush's campaign spokesman. "He's opposed to automatic restoration because
he thinks there ought to be some review of the process before restoration
occurs."

Bush said the state would no longer delay restoration if, for instance, an
applicant owed $1,000 in traffic tickets. Now ex-felons can be denied
rights only in cases where victims are owed restitution.

The provision stripping ex-felons of their rights dates to Florida's 1868
constitution, when the Confederate state sought readmission to the Union.

"It has been documented that it was a way to deny blacks the right to
vote," said state Rep. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale. "If you were
convicted of a crime, your rights could be taken. It was started for racist
reasons. But Florida went a step further. They put it in the constitution,
and that's made it real hard to change."

Smith said that with the power to restore voting rights resting solely with
the governor, giving felons their rights back "is a hard sell in this
political climate."

The issue has attracted politicians, including Smith, State Sen. Mandy
Dawson, D-Fort Lauderdale, and former Democratic gubernatorial candidates
Daryl Jones and Janet Reno. They advocate making it easier for felons who
have served time to reclaim their rights.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride also supports simplifying
the rights application process, said Tony Welch, a campaign spokesman. He
said McBride doesn't make a distinction between violent and nonviolent
felons on this issue.

While McBride doesn't want the procedure to be automatic, he does want it
streamlined, Welch said.

"The state has got to simplify our procedure," Welch said. "Once you've
served your time, there are too many hurdles for them to become a full
member in our society. The state of Florida should want the largest number
of people voting."

Smith and Dawson, teaming with the ACLU of Florida, have participated in a
series of workshops in Broward County to show ex-felons how to fill out the
rights restoration forms. Smith said he sends forms to the governor on his
own stationery to speed up the process. He also monitors the request's
progress after submission.

Smith said he got interested in the issue when he first ran for the state
House in 1998.

"I was campaigning and would set up voter registration outside of grocery
stores," he recalled. "Nine and a half out of 10 men who looked like me
would say `felon' and keep walking. That's what got me started."

A lawsuit filed last year by the ACLU and other civil rights organizations
arguing that the state wasn't doing enough to help ex-felons restore their
voting rights was gutted by a state court judge in August. The only part of
the suit remaining concerns a computer error between the Department of
Corrections and the Parole Office that prevented about 113,000 ex-felons
from getting their initial voting rights restoration letters. Tallahassee
Circuit Judge P. Kevin Davey asked the attorneys to try to settle that
issue, probably by agreeing to resend the letters.

"Those 113,000 fell through the cracks," said Strickland of the ACLU voting
rights project. "Just think, if one-third of those could get their rights
restored the fast way, without a hearing, what a difference their votes
could make."

Latimer, the St. Petersburg barber, agreed. "We could have swung the [2000
presidential] election with people who have petty marijuana felonies," he
said. "Nobody wants us to vote."

At his barbershop, a high-pitched discussion marked by animation and anger
centered on the governor's lack of concern for felons, how tough it is for
a felon to find meaningful employment and why voting doesn't matter, anyway.

"I should be able to vote," Blake said as he waited for his turn. "I pay
taxes." Blake has not tried to get his civil rights restored because he's
heard from other ex-felons that it's a long, difficult process. He doesn't
remember getting any letter about restoring his rights, either.

With the Nov. 5 election fast approaching, Latimer, Davis and Blake weren't
worried as much about the candidates as they were about jobs.

"Local elections are a joke," said Davis. "Whoever's got the most money
wins. So your vote doesn't matter. They put in who they want. `They' is the
dominating party. The Republicans are in the statehouse now."

Davis, 34, spent seven years in prison for robbery and drug possession and
was released in 1991. After a series of low-paying jobs delivering
packages, cleaning toilets and washing dishes, he earned a barber's license
and has been cutting hair at Cole's for several years.

"Jeb [Bush] don't care anything about felons," said Davis. "So what the
hell do I care about voting? Felons can't get a job. I had a job with
FedEx. But once they went into my background, they fired me.

"I was taught `don't lie,'" Davis said. "I thought the truth would set you
free. So I was honest and said I was a felon. The truth won't set you free.
The truth will keep you trapped."

Latimer, 26, a barber who served time on drug charges, had his rights
restored and cast a ballot in 2000. But none of his candidates won and
nothing has changed for him, his family or his neighborhood. He said he
thinks his vote doesn't count, so he won't vote again.

"The [1995] riots came through here and millions of dollars were promised,"
Latimer said. "We got two or three new businesses, but where did the rest
of the money go?"

"We watch the news and we want changes," Latimer said. "But how can we
accomplish that?"