Thousands of Florida Felons Still Have Voting Rights

Convicted felons in Florida are stripped of their right to vote. So how is it that tens of thousands of Florida felons who have done their time are on voter rolls and thousands turned out to cast votes in the last statewide election?

More than 30,000 Florida felons who by law should have been stripped of their right to vote remain registered to cast ballots in this presidential battleground state, a Sun Sentinel investigation has found.

Many are faithful voters, with at least 4,900 turning out in past elections.

Another 5,600 are not likely to vote Nov. 4 — they're still in prison.

Of the felons who registered with a party, Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two to one.

Keep that in mind when you wonder how close national elections can get, and how Florida was at the heart of the 2000 election kerfuffle that was decided by just over 500 votes. That's more than 10,000 votes that should have never been cast because they were in violation of state election law and the state's penal code.

In the last eight years, Florida hasn't managed to do what it needs to do to keep the voter rolls current, eliminating fraudulent voters and those who are ineligible to vote. That diminishes the rights that other legitimate voters take for granted - and that's part of the bigger problem. All too many people take the right to vote for granted that they overlook all the problems with the election system - focusing on the ballot design and electronic ballots because they can serve as backdrops for news conferences and press releases by state officials who can trot out new electronic ballot machines - rather than the more mundane tasks of clearing the rolls of dead people and felons who are ineligible to vote.

Note too that this problem isn't confined to Florida. It's nationwide.

Oh, and watch for the ongoing claims that taking such measures to protect your right to vote are nothing more than suppression of voting rights. The left claims that the GOP is engaging in a ceaseless drumbeat of suppression of votes, ignoring the rampant election fraud engaged by groups like ACORN. So far, at least 15 states are investigating ACORN for voter fraud and pushing bogus registrations.