By some estimates, Amendment 4 could enfranchise as many as 1.4 million former felons. Even if only some of them register to vote — and turn out — they could prove pivotal in a state used to razor-thin elections. | Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images Florida GOP moves to rein in felon voting rights

TALLAHASSEE — Republicans in the country’s largest swing state, ahead of what promises to be a heated 2020 battle, on Thursday moved to rein in the number of former felons allowed to cast ballots in next year’s presidential election.

The GOP-controlled state Senate voted 22-17 along party lines to pass an election reform bill, adding the felon provision at the 11th hour over the objections of Democrats. The Florida House is expected to pass the measure Friday and send it to Gov. Ron DeSantis, an ally of President Donald Trump.


Republicans insisted the move was a response to vague wording in a voter-approved amendment to rescind a Civil War-era rule denying former convicts the right to vote. But Democrats viewed the effort with suspicion, calling it an effort to blunt the potential political impact of an entire class of new voters.

In November, more than more than 5 million Floridians cast ballots for Amendment 4, which restored voting rights to released prisoners once they served their sentences, as long as they had not been convicted of murder or a serious sex offense.

This year, election supervisors began registering former felons who had served their time, prompting a debate over the amendment.

Legislators, who before the amendment passed had refused to address the question of disenfranchised ex-felons, quickly weighed in, crafting a bill that required offenders to pay all restitution owed to victims as well as fees or fines imposed by the court in order to be eligible to vote.

The measure spells out the ways a convicted felon can meet that financial obligation. A court order from a judge, for example, can convert a financial obligation into community service hours.

Sen. Jeff Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican and one of the bill’s architects, said legislators were following the wording of Amendment 4. In debate on the Senate floor Thursday, he pointed out that an attorney for voting rights groups used the same definition when the measure was reviewed by the state Supreme Court.

“We are now bound by the four corners of the constitutional amendment,” Brandes told senators.

The debate was heavy with the potential of considerable political consequence. By some estimates, Amendment 4 could enfranchise as many as 1.4 million former felons. Even if only some of them register to vote — and turn out — they could prove pivotal in a state used to razor-thin elections.

Democratic senators said that Republicans had gone too far.

“I don’t believe the voter intended for financial barriers to stop them from exercising the right to participate,” said Sen. Darryl Rouson, a St. Petersburg Democrat.

Republicans said it would be wrong to not require former prisoners to pay back their victims first.

“If they took money from you, if they broke in to your house and stole something that is valuable to you and your family and they have not paid it back, they have not completed their sentence,” said Sen. Rob Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which has filed multiple lawsuits over the state’s voting laws, called the bill a continuation of Florida’s legacy of voter suppression.

“For decades, state lawmakers had the chance to be on the right side of history and restore the right to vote but failed to do so,” said Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. “Today, instead of following the will of the people, they have chosen to thwart access to the ballot box and a historic citizens initiative that re-enfranchised 1.4 million people. Floridians will not forget.”

The bill, which now returns to the House with time running out on the legislative session, includes a safe harbor provision for anyone who registered to vote this year. Anyone registered between Jan. 8 — the date the amendment took effect — and July 1 cannot be prosecuted for voter fraud if they’re later found ineligible to vote because of outstanding fines or fees.

The Senate bill also includes the bulk of an elections overhaul intended to remedy problems that surfaced during the state's troubled 2018 elections.

Florida had three mandatory statewide recounts in 2018 after candidates were elected with narrow margins of victory in races for U.S. Senate, governor and agriculture commissioner.

In the chaotic days that followed, criticism mounted against election officials conducting recounts in two Democratic-heavy counties in South Florida. Democrats also filed numerous lawsuits challenging state election laws. In a victory for Democrats, a district court judge gave voters extra days to fix any problematic ballot signatures.

If signed into law, the bill would move the date of Florida's primary election a week earlier and change the time during which voters can request and receive vote-by-mail ballots. It would also gives voters two days after an election to prove their identity if questions arise about their signature on the ballot envelope. It also would set ballot design standards to avoid problems that occurred in Broward County.