Court approves felons’ rights to vote

By Lazaro Aleman Riverbend News On Friday, Sept. 11, the full US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta handed Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature a victory in the long-running legal battle over restoration of Florida felons’ right to participate in elections. The court’s decision leaves Florida free to condition a former felon's right to vote on whether the individual has paid all the fines, fees and restitutions associated with his or her conviction prior to registration. The ruling reverses a lower court’s decision that the state could not base a person’s right to vote on his or her ability to pay, which the lower court equated to a poll tax