Ex-criminals must help Joe Biden win | Abroad

In the southern state, new legislation prevents former inmates from voting if they have to pay fees or fines related to their trial. It is unclear how many people will be affected by that measure, but according to American media it is likely to be hundreds of thousands of people. They often cannot pay those debts.

Florida Rights Restoration Commission (FRRC) action group says it has now raised 20 million dollars (17 million euros) for financial support for those ex-convicts. Bloomberg, the wealthy former mayor of New York, was one of the biggest backers. He said in a statement that no American should be denied the right to vote.

The voices of thousands of inmates could make all the difference later this year. Florida is seen as an important ‘swing state’, in which elections can be very exciting. Current President Donald Trump received about 113,000 more votes than his rival Hillary Clinton in 2016: a difference of 1.2 percent.

The legislation stipulating that ex-cons who want to vote must first pay their fines comes from Trump’s Republicans. Many of the people affected by the measure belong to populations that traditionally vote mostly for rival Democrats. Voters in Florida had actually decided in a 2018 referendum to give back many people with criminal records their right to vote.

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