(07-04-2019, 10:33 AM)Rajvik Wrote: That is not a poll tax, a poll tax is a requirement for you to pay a fee just to be able to vote. Here what you have is someone having to finish the monetary part of their sentence. You see, when you are convicted of a crime there are court costs and restitution that are part of the sentence that you are required to pay. All this law does is make it clear where it wasn't before, that you are also required to pay these fines as well as having served your time.
From the first article
Quote:The new law requires people with serious criminal histories to fully pay back fines and fees to the courts before they become eligible to vote.
So, you mean to tell me that it's legal for the Florida government to accuse me of any number of crimes, run up the government's legal bills to an arbitrarily impossible to pay level and only see me convicted of a single felony to deny me the right to vote forever?
I mean, seriously. Before the referendum it was not required of any convicted felon to pay the court fees and fines to be allowed to reclaim their right to vote, all they needed to do was convince the governor to write an order to the appropriate officials to do so, and argue their case in person, or the commission he appointed to handle this duty, also in person. If the law had existed before the matter was brought to a referendum and the referendum declared that all convicted felons should be allowed to vote upon conclusion of their sentence, with it being understood that having served one's time in jail and being released is the completion of that sentence.
This is a poll tax, it just uses an excuse to make it seem more palatable. It's a poll tax because it forbids sections of the population to vote on the basis of their financial situation. Effectively, you are not allowed to vote if you can't pay a sum of money.