ORLANDO, Florida – A new proposal from the Florida Division of Elections seeks to bring more clarity to the 2018 Florida constitutional amendment regarding the voting rights of ex-felons.

The Fourth Amendment, passed in 2018, gives some convicted criminals the opportunity to vote after serving their sentence, which includes parole.

However, because it can be difficult to determine whether they are eligible to vote, the FDE proposal seeks to change the process by which they find out whether they can legally register to vote.

The proposal gives former offenders the opportunity to request a statement on their eligibility to vote, providing guidance to people who are unsure whether they have regained their right to register and vote.

By submitting this form, an assessment will be made and the answer will then be clear: the person is either not eligible to vote or register or not.

Desmond Meade of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition said the FDE announcement represents a major step forward for ex-felons seeking to regain their right to vote.

“We wanted to answer a simple question: Whose job is it to determine eligibility to vote?” Meade said.

He said the announcement brought the clarity they had been seeking and hoping for.

“The other big point, in my opinion, is that it gives people protection from arrest,” Meade said.

In 2022, 20 people were arrested and charged with electoral fraud after registering and voting even though their rights had not been fully restored.

Governor Ron DeSantis said at the time that the people in question had been convicted of violent crimes such as murder or sexual assault.

But Meade said the Florida Rights Restoration Commission believes the illegal voters may have done so because of a misunderstanding and not with the intent of committing a crime.

“We need to give people the confidence in elections that they can go to the polls and cast their vote,” he said. “We need people who don’t have to worry about whether they’re going to be arrested or not. We need people who are engaged in our democracy.”

Meade said no one should take the ability to vote for granted.

“Here, your vote is worth as much as that of the richest person in the world or the most powerful person in this country, because it’s one man or one woman, one vote,” Meade said.