Tranassa White dabbed away the tears welling up in the corner of her eye and smoothed out her shirt to better display the "I registered to vote" sticker on her chest.

Even though Escambia County's next election is more than a year away, White was excited and elated to know she would be a part of it.

"I want to be able to tell my other ex-felons there is nothing to be afraid of," White said. "Go out there. Register. Have your voice heard in the public, because this is going to change futures for us. This is going to bring about a drastic shift from where we were, to where we are heading."

White is one of the estimated 1.4 million Floridians who automatically regained the right to vote when Amendment 4 went into effect on Tuesday. The amendment restores the right to vote for people with felony convictions (except individuals convicted of murder or felony sexual offenses) once they have completed the terms of their sentence, including probation and parole.

Amendment goes into effect:Ex-felons will be able to register to vote in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties Tuesday

What's the impact?:What will 1.4M new ex-offender voters mean for Democrats and Republicans?

Statewide, roughly 64.5 percent of voters — some 5 million people — voted in favor of the amendment, which made it onto the ballot through a grassroots signature drive.

Until Tuesday, Florida was one of a handful of states that permanently disenfranchised people with past felony convictions. The only way for citizens to have their voting rights restored was through a clemency board process that was seemingly arbitrary and deemed unconstitutional in 2018.

White, 33, personally took to the streets to advocate for Amendment 4, working with local volunteers from the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters, Movement for Change and other state and local organizations to canvass neighborhoods, hand out flyers and even make the case for the amendment directly to state legislators.

She overcame a history of childhood neglect, but around the age of 21, she ran afoul of the law, and in 2006 she was sentenced to five years in state prison for charges including battery, resisting an officer and drug possession.

White said she didn't receive any rehabilitation in prison, but instead changed her life because of a support network. She is now holding down a steady job, raising a son and working toward a bachelor's degree after earning an associate degree at Pensacola State College.

Sara Latshaw, the ACLU of Florida Deputy Political Director, went to the Escambia County Supervisor of Elections Office with White Tuesday to be at her side when she took her next big step: registering to vote.

Latshaw said she was proud to be there with White, and also proud of the Florida volunteers who worked so hard to advocate for ex-offenders and the Florida voters who supported Amendment 4.

"The very people who were affected by this weren't able to vote to change it, so it means that much more that their family members and friends and people in Florida stood up to say they believe in second chances," Latshaw said.

By about 1 p.m. Tuesday, 11 people who self-identified as having their voting rights newly restored had registered to vote at the Supervisor of Elections Office in downtown Pensacola, according to the office's staff.

Sonya Daniel, Escambia County deputy supervisor of elections, said that was a large turnout for a January immediately after a big election.

"There are a lot of very happy people who have come in today," Daniel said.

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Escambia County Supervisor of Elections David Stafford said there may be additional people who registered online, by mail or at other locations such as a library or tax collector's office.

Stafford said from his office's perspective, folks with newly restored voting rights don't need to do anything differently than anyone else who registers to vote. However, he noted that there are still some things that will have to be sorted out at the state level.

For instance, there is still ongoing discussion over how to quantify when a person has completed the terms of their sentence, probation and parole and what the verification process will be.

Stafford said the state legislature will probably discuss Amendment 4 further once it is in session, but it remained to be seen if the body will pass any laws regarding the amendment.

Either way, "I'm confident the process will gain more clarity over the next weeks and months, certainly well before the next election cycle in 2020," Stafford said.

Kevin Robinson can be reached at 850-435-8527 or krobinson4@pnj.com.