It’s the late ’90s. You make some dumb choices. You get charged with robbing a Subway. You spend four years in prison. It’s 1995. Your friends rob a KFC. You drive the getaway car. Four years in jail. That was then. Now you’re a pastor at a church. Today, you run a successful flooring business. You’ve paid your dues. You’ve made amends. Now you want to have a voice in the world. But, you live in Florida. The Sunshine State is one of only four states that permanently bars felons from casting a ballot. And there are 1.7 estimated million people there who are disenfranchised due to a prior felony conviction. Over 10% of adults in the state cannot vote. Nearly one in four black adults is disenfranchised. The law does provide one way for former felons to get their voting rights back. But don’t get your hopes up. Then you have to wait another 10, 12 years. Why? Because there is a backlog of about 10,000 cases. Finally, as many as 20 years later, you get your big day in court. If your hearing was in front of Gov. Rick Scott, you almost certainly heard this: “I deny restoration of civil rights. I deny restoration of civil rights. At this point, I’m going to deny restoration of civil rights. I deny restoration of civil rights. I deny restoration of civil rights. So it’s all denied. Well, first off, thanks for your work for the state.” “Thank you.” “At this point, I don’t feel comfortable giving your restoration of civil rights. But congratulations on your work, and congratulations on your daughter.” “Thank you.” The law gives the governor and his cabinet members the power to decide our fate. And there’s no rules or guidelines. “There is no right to clemency. There’s no standards. The governor goes first. If I deny, then it’s over.” The governor can turn you away for any reason no matter how petty. “Just don’t get traffic tickets all the time. I mean, I mean it just says something. It says you don’t care about the law.” And it’s not just me. Governor Scott has denied way more people than his predecessors. In the last eight years, the number of disenfranchised citizens in Florida has increased by nearly 200,000 people. But wait, how did we even get here? The law is 150 years old and was designed to keep people that looked like me from voting. When the Civil War ended, freed slaves represented almost half of Florida’s population. The state’s all-white lawmakers came up with a racist plan to prevent blacks from gaining power. They created Black Codes, not-so-subtly named laws that subjected black people to harsh sentences for minor offenses. They then barred anyone with a conviction from voting. They didn’t even try to hide it. For the next 150 years, no one questioned the law. And now, here we are. “Florida voters will get to decide on a ballot referendum that would restore voting rights to felons who have done their time.” “Murderers and sex offenders are excluded.” “To pass Amendment 4, voters would need 60% or more in November.” Vote “Yes” in November to restore voting rights. Be our voice today so everyone invested in the future of Florida can help shape that future.