“Trump or Harris: Why Trump Can Easily Cast His Vote Despite Felony Conviction”
Trump or Harris: In Florida, getting one’s voting rights restored after a felony conviction can be an arduous process, but former President Donald Trump won’t have to navigate those hurdles as he heads to the polls today.
Earlier this year, Trump was convicted in Manhattan on 34 counts of falsifying business records over a scheme to silence women whose allegations of extramarital affairs with him came perilously close to being revealed before the 2016 election. As the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a felony, Trump is slated for sentencing on November 26.
Under Florida law, voting rights are restored in conformity with the law of the state where a conviction has been obtained with respect to out-of-state felony convictions. In Trump’s case, he will be under the 2021 New York statute that permits persons with felony convictions to vote as long as they are not behind bars on election day.
However, this is a much more complicated process for many Floridian inmates who are convicted of felonies. In 2018, an initiative to restore the right to vote to those who’d served their time was in effect largely nullified by the Republican lawmakers of that state. They enacted a law that stipulates all persons convicted must pay all fees and fines, which would technically be a bit of a nightmare to administer since there was no central system to aid in tracking outstanding fees.