Supporters of the bill, approved by the Republican-controlled House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice on Tuesday, contend that it is meant merely to resolve questions over how to put Amendment 4, which voters approved in November, into practice.
But voting rights advocates say the bill would unfairly punish those who are unable to pay and undermine the central objective of the amendment: ending permanent disenfranchisement.
“This bill is just flying directly in the face of what two-thirds of Florida voters said very clearly,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, a lawyer at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York.
Since the amendment took effect in January, it has caused some confusion. It did not apply to those convicted of murder or sexual offenses, and questions arose about which crimes should be counted in those categories.
More contentious is the financial issue: Would felons be required to pay up for their sentence to be pronounced “completed?”
The bill, which would also clarify the relevant offenses, passed the subcommittee by a vote of 10-5, split along party lines, with the Democrats opposed.
The financial question led a Democratic opponent of the bill, Rep. Adam Hattersley, to label it “blatantly unconstitutional as a poll tax,” a reference to the fees used to keep African-Americans from voting in the South starting in the 1890s. (African-Americans are disproportionately affected by felony disenfranchisement, though the majority of Floridians with felony convictions are white.)
Rep. James Grant, a Republican and the subcommittee’s chairman, has said that the goal of the bill is to establish a uniform set of criteria to determine who is legally eligible to vote.
Politico reported Tuesday that the measure was expected to move easily through the House, and that the Senate was preparing its own bill containing “guidance” on how the amendment should be put into effect. Both chambers are controlled by Republicans.
The matter is especially pernicious in Florida because of the state’s rigid rules on fines and fees, said Ashley Thomas, the Florida director of the nonprofit Fines and Fees Justice Center. Almost no waivers are granted to the indigent, she said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.