Felons list poses a risk to rights of lawful voters
By HOWARD TROXLER
Published June 13, 2004
Our tradition says it's better for 10 guilty people to go free than for a single innocent person to be wrongly convicted.
Likewise, it would be better for 10 or even 100 felons to be accidentally allowed to vote in Florida than for a single innocent citizen to be wrongly turned away at the ballot box.
When the government takes away the right to vote from a law-abiding citizen, even if by mistake, it forfeits a little piece of its own moral right to hold power. Pretty soon it's time for pitchforks and torches.
That's why this list of 47,000 "potential" felons that the state of Florida is circulating among its 67 counties, with the goal of crossing the names of true felons off the voting rolls, is such a dangerous document.
In the 2000 election, Katherine Harris, then the secretary of state, sent out a ridiculously sloppy list for the same purpose of tracking down felons. It was so unreliable that 20 county elections offices ignored it. But others didn't, and there were anecdotes of Floridians across the state being misidentified as felons and wrongly denied their right to vote.
For the upcoming elections, it should be said that the state seems to be doing a better job. Everybody's caution flags are up.
This time around, the list of 47,000 names being sent out by the state is only a starting point, not the final word. County elections offices are verifying the status of each person on the list and notifying them by mail to give them a chance to correct any mistakes.
And state law now allows for the casting of a provisional ballot on Election Day, which will be counted when a voter's disputed status is resolved in his or her favor.
So we're better off than in 2000. But it is still a risky business, and the government needs to approach it with the same degree of caution as a doctor about to perform open-heart surgery.
Now, as a side issue, you might have seen that CNN, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and others are suing the state Division of Elections to get a copy of the state's list of potential felons.
This issue is not new. State law already provided for this kind of secrecy. The law says that only certain people, such as party officials or campaign consultants, can get copies of lists of voters. The rest of us riffraff can look at the voter rolls, but we can't get copies.
A spokesman for the Department of State said, "The release of this information would potentially violate the privacy of innocent voters." That's silly - the release of this information makes it more likely that the rights of innocent voters will be protected.
It's a stupid law anyway. It is a law that gives some citizens more privileges than others, just because of their chosen line of work or association. On the other hand, just because a law is stupid does not make it unconstitutional, so CNN, Nelson & Co. might be wasting their time.
As a final point, we wouldn't have to fool with any of this if Florida got rid of this automatic ban on voting for ex-felons unless they petition to have their rights restored. We're one of seven states with a rule so harsh.
The common sense and fair thing to do is to take away the right of felons to vote until they have paid their debt to society - until they have finished their prison term, completed their probation and paid their restitution.
It is always tempting, of course, to divide the world neatly into Good People and Bad People. But without a doubt there are rehabilitated felons today who are better citizens than the "good" ones. If there were a merit test for who deserved to vote, a lot of folks would be in for a big surprise.
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You might remember the heartbreaking article that ran April 11 about the rare brain disease of Mike Mahoney, the longtime spokesman for TECO Energy Inc. Now his colleagues in the public relations industry are holding a benefit for his family. The event will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the TECO Plaza on Franklin Street in downtown Tampa. Suggested contributions are $25. Checks payable to the Public Relations Society of America also can be mailed to P.O. Box 25242, Tampa, FL 33622. For more information, call Michele Collet-Kriz at (813) 739-1322.
