Opinion | Why Are Florida Republicans So Afraid of People Voting?

Finally, it’s hard to understand how these fines and fees can be considered part of a person’s sentence. When people finish their probation or parole, their fines and fees are usually converted to a civil lien or judgment — meaning they are treated like basically any other debt. Imagine if you weren’t allowed to get your college diploma until you’d paid off your student loans.

The effects of this law go beyond the harm done to individual voters. Florida is one of the most politically competitive states in the country, which means even small changes in the electorate can make a big difference. In the 2018 midterms, 8.3 million Floridians voted; the two biggest races, for governor and senator, were decided by 34,000 and 10,000 votes, respectively. And who could forget the 2000 presidential election, decided by 537 votes statewide, even as 12,000 Floridians were mistakenly targeted for removal from voter rolls because they were believed to have felony records.

The overwhelming majority of Americans see felon disenfranchisement as the cruel, pointless and counterproductive punishment that it is. It serves no purpose other than to prevent millions of Americans from more fully participating in society. That’s why many states have loosened or gotten rid of their felon disenfranchisement laws in recent years. Vermont and Maine have gone even further, allowing people in prison to vote — as is the case in most European countries. Last time we checked, all are still functioning democracies.

Even if Florida’s new law is ultimately struck down in the courts — as it should be — it has already achieved a key goal of its Republican sponsors, which is to confuse and discourage those potential voters who are just finding their way back to society — and who, not incidentally, are more likely to vote Democratic. After all, no one wants to make a mistake and wind up like Crystal Mason, the Texas woman who was sentenced to five years in prison for voting when she didn’t realize she wasn’t allowed to.

The same impetus is behind voter-identification laws passed by Republican-led legislatures as well as the Trump administration’s effort to get a citizenship question on the 2020 census. The success of these measures is not necessarily in their implementation, but in driving down turnout among likely Democratic voters.

Florida Republicans, like their counterparts in other states and in Washington, D.C., are becoming increasingly comfortable with the perks of minority rule, like the ability to disregard what the majority of voters demand. They appear to know that when you can’t win on your ideas, you win by undermining democracy.