Currents February 2020 Feb 2020 _Currents web | Page 5

Currents
February 2020
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Florida’s four most populous counties created “rocket
dockets” to waive fines and fees en masse. Miami-
Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and Hillsborough-
which, together, make up more than a third of the
state’s population-launched programs to identify indi-
viduals who owe fines and fees and fast-track their
cases to the courts. A judge then waives their finan-
cial obligations (except restitution to victims) and pro-
vides them with a court order declaring their sen-
tences complete. This order reestablishes their right
to vote. Courts, prosecutors, and
public defenders all support these
programs, and celebrity activist
John Legend helped to publicize
them by sitting in on a “rocket
docket” session. Local officials
provide individuals with voter reg-
istration forms as soon as their
fines and fees are waived.”
WLRN reported these four
counties’ swift action raises the
possibility that Republicans’ plan
to undercut Amendment 4 may
backfire. There is little doubt that
GOP legislators opposed the
amendment because they feared
it would disproportionately enfran-
chise Democrats. But their bill
has led to a bizarre system in
which Democratic counties are
re-enfranchising their voters while
Republican-majority counties are
not. Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm
Beach, and Hillsborough all over-
whelmingly supported Hillary Clin-
ton over Donald Trump in 2016.
They are Democratic strongholds
in a state with notoriously close
elections. In 2016, Trump beat
Clinton by about 113,000 votes.
Meanwhile, Miami-Dade hopes to
grant about 150,000 former felons
the right to vote”. The re-enfran-
chisement of hundreds of thou-
sands of voters in primarily Dem-
ocratic counties may very well
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