states can only do felons currently serving their sentences the right to vote and that ex felons along with all people who are subject to prolife probation must be allowed to vote the laws of their state to the contrary notwithstanding this legislation would thereby avoid the laws in forty add a fifty states as well as the district of columbia that forbids felons from voting in varying degrees those states include my own state of wisconsin where people lose their voting rights  reasonable perpetrators of serious crimes shall not take part in electing the legislators who make the laws the executives who enforce them and the prosecutors who must try them for violations or the judges who are to consider their cases  could not serve as a basis for reducing their representation in congress as the supreme court held in richard as an affirmative action by the constitution of the exclusion of felons from the vote including congress for states to disenfranchise felons for example the national voter registration act of one thousand nine hundred three which was signed into law by president clinton not only provides a felony conviction may be the basis for cancelling a voter's registration but it also requires federal prosecutors to notify state election officials of federal felony convictions they help america vote act of two thousand and two also instruct state election officials to purge disenfranchised felons from their computerized voting less on a regular basis finally regardless of the merits of this bill it's dollars full of congress even has the constitutional authority to enact it because doing so would exceed congress's enforcement powers under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendment and the nine hundred ninety seven case of city of baron versus florists the supreme court held that congress cannot enact laws in support of the constitutional equal protection requirement unless congress has first developed a legislative record that demonstrates a history and pattern of unconstitutional state conduct not only has that legislative record not been compiled but for the reasons i'll blind above it does not appear that it ever could be compiled considering the vast weight of countervailing historical evidence still i look forward to hearing from all our witnesses today and i think those who are in support of this bill had better answer this thank you and we're joined by the gentleman from tennessee mr cohen thank you mr chairman i appreciate the opportunity to make an opening statement but this has been an issue very close to my heart during the most of my legislative career in one nine hundred eighty six a state senator up passed a bill in tennessee that changed the voting rights in tennessee and allowed for people who had previously been declared infamous not to have voting rights to get their voting rights restored  my vote and maybe one other person's it was changed it made me realize at that time that part of the impetus besides the racial implications which i think are clear defacto not the jury necessarily racism was that the d a s who put these people in jail didn't want to see those people come back to vote because they wouldn't vote for that and that's not right either it's politically covering your rear and that's what happened when they changed the law in tennessee and then in two thousand and six we changed the law again and we changed it back to a simple procedure some similar was ninety six to ninety six however the individual from east tennessee a republican on the house put in a minute on to say that you couldn't get your voting rights restored if you're behind in your child support well spent some time in prison i think you're going to be behind in your child support because you're not earning any money and we know that that that was another effort and that it was challenged by was accepted in the house which is something i wish wouldn't happen but i was in the senate the a c l u challenge that action but i think the court said that it was not that they weren't successful in their court challenge so we still have that problem in tennessee the bottom line is mr chairman this is a vestige of jim and i don't care if it's in wisconsin if it's in utah if it's in alaska it's a vestige of jim crow and it needs to go and if the constitution if there's a problem we need to find a way to get around it and while the distinguished former chairman of this committee submit that the ninth circuit is the most overturned circuit i think that's a condemnation of the supreme court of the united states not a condemnation of the night circuit is more likely on point correct and moving this country forward so because it's overturned that's a badge of honor and the reauthorization of the voting rights act help america vote act degrees in political science communications and legal studies at howard university university of missouri st louis and north northeastern university respectively roger roger clegg is the president general counsel for the center for equal opportunity one thousand nine hundred two to ninety three he held a number of positions with the department of justice including assistant solicitor general and served as the civil rights division has served in the civil rights division and environmental division he's a graduate of rice university and yale law school byrd newborn is a professor of civil liberties of new york university school of law is served as a becoming a full time student at brown university while maintaining time employment and advocating on behalf of those disenfranchised to do it a felony conviction is currently in a second year at yale law school never learned that he's going to be joining the office of the full judiciary committee as an intern later this year i'm pleased to welcome all of you your written statements in their entirety will be made part of the record and i ask each of you to summarize your testimony in five convictions americans are no longer in jail the democracy restoration act would permit men and women to register and vote in federal elections once they have been released from prison the question as to whether or not these people should be allowed to vote is not a partisan question since nine hundred ninety seven nineteen states that are considered both blue and red have a minute disenfranchisement policies and to restore voter eligibility felony disenfranchisement laws have had a racially and ethnically disparate effect on minority americans in general and  african americans specifically nationwide an estimated thirteen percent or one out of every african american men cannot vote because a prior felony conviction this is a seven times the national average and while the majority of those americans who are disenfranchised because of prior felony convictions are caucasian african americans who make up about thirteen percent of the u s national population constitute about one third thirty three percent of those disenfranchised furthermore give aeration three in ten of the next generation of african american men ten expect to lose their right to vote at some point in their lifetime in states that disenfranchise bendis as many as forty percent of african american men may effectively in permanently lose their right to vote one question that is frequently asked and how many of these men and women would vote if they had an opportunity it is frankly difficult to say however in two thousand and six voters in rhode island changed the law so that once a felon was released from prison he or she was able to register to vote since probation or parole terms can run a decade or more an estimated fifteen thousand people in that state were prevented from voting after passage of the amendment about six thousand of these people registered to vote in the two thousand and eight electoral process decreasing to speak he or she may have in his or her own community furthermore election laws even those government federal elections are determined by individual states and so disenfranchisement laws may vary significantly across the country one on one hand some states allow individual vote while they are incarcerated on the other hand eleven states currently do not allow people vote once they are convicted of a felony offense even after they are full of complete sentences this leads to confusion and disparity a perfect example of the vast disparities right here in our own backyard in virginia a felony conviction automatically resulted in a permanent disenfranchisement just over the state line in west virginia a person is allowed to register and vote once he or she leaves prison as a result less than one percent of the total population of west virginia is disenfranchised and all but three point four percent of african american populations voting age are able to vote in virginia almost seven percent of the entire voting age population is disenfranchised due to a past on the convention and almost twenty percent of the state's african american population is locked out of a voting booth the only voting restrictions are the last vestige of voting prohibition when the us was founded only wealthy men were allowed to vote women racial ethnic minorities illiterates and the poor were excluded most of those restrictions have all been eliminated over time often with much debate rancor and challenges people who have serve their time and been released from prison the last americans to be denied their highly cherry's basic right to vote furthermore the space which disenfranchised the most african americans tend to be in the south makes these laws all the more suspect in fact in some states with more restrictive disenfranchisement laws we have had african americans report that their personal history and therefore their voting eligibility question simply because of the color of their skin because the right to vote is such an important element of the democratic process it is simply wrong to put predicated upon a system rife with racial disparities and with the voting such as an integral part of becoming a productive member of american society the way forward for our nation should be a new pa thank you mr chairman for the opportunity to testify today my name is roger clegg and i'm the president general counsel of the center for equal opportunity i worked there with linda chavez on a variety of issues were best described as a conservative think tank i appreciate the opportunity to testify today because i feel very strongly about this bill i'm sorry to say that what i have to say is that  committee this congress does not have the authority to pass it and that even if you did have the authority to pass it it would be a bad idea and i don't view either one of those as being particularly the subject of other different parts of the constitution that's what alexander hamilton thought that's what james madison thought that's what the words of the constitution there is no supreme court authority to the contrary the case that most squarely presented this issue succeeded in getting the vote of exactly one supreme so what you have to rely on instead is authority under the fourteenth or fifteenth amendment mr chairman in your introduction you said that you can rely on those provisions if there is a and history is quite clear that there is no systematic use or intent behind  from voting they were passed huge majority of states long before the civil war it is true that there were five southern states in the period from eight hundred ninety to one hundred ten that those laws to further disenfranchise african americans but those were five states those laws are no longer on the books all the other states to one degree or another disenfranchise the historical record simply is not there and the record that is being relied on here  is nonexistent the supreme court's decision handling of the northwest austin case last year made clear that they were very interested in congress being able to point to some kind of authority and i must say mr chairman that skeptical as the supreme court was in the northwest austin case  or congressional authority there was robust compared to what we have here simply no authority for congress to pass this bill and it's my written testimony elaborates it would be a and possible probation and parole requirements finally there are various disabilities such as the inability to own a gun to work as a police officer to serve in certain elected officers offices or to serve on a jury time in prison is not and has never and the only way a felon pays for breaking the law endangering his fellow citizens and the public i have to say with all due respect fest newborn i pulled out my copy the constitution must be looking at a different version of it than that i have because this  bill is an unconstitutional intrusion into the rights of the states congress does not have the power to do this talking about literacy tests and that we would say that congress didn't have the power to think about that of course is raw the fifteenth amendment  discriminating on the basis of race illegal literacy tests were used for that purpose so obviously with the voting rights act which was passed under the power the fifteenth amendment congress had the power to do that but the fourteenth amendment specifically states that states may abridge the right to vote because of rebellion or other crime and as it was said in the i think ramirez case which looked at a felon disenfranchisement law in california  congress can't be seen to what the founders could and as a pastors of that that amendment could not be seen to be taking away with one section of the fourteenth a member granting the state specifically with the other as has been said criminals lose their right to vote not because of their race because of their conscious actions there's no power in article one for congress to do anything that is contrary to this provision in the fourteenth amendment section t of article one and the seventeenth amendment provide voters for members of congress shall have the same qualifications as voters for members of state legislatures this explicitly places in the hands of the state the ability to determine the qualifications of voters congress is given the authority to alter the times places and manner of elections for congress but the qualifications of a felon to vote cannot be remotely compared to a regulation governing the time place or manner of an election and i would point out that in the verses which up held a national voter registration act the court specifically said that the reason that those provisions regarding voter registration were within the power of congress was because voter registration is within the manner of holding an election and in fact the court said that if the law had been designed to make it impossible for the state of illinois to enforce its voter qualifications that would have been a tireless different they're also sound public policy reasons why they should not be done a lot of civil rights as part of the sanction that our society is determined should be applied to criminal states are entitled to ensure that those who injure or murder their fellow citizens  or who damage our democracy by committing crimes have paid their debt to society and even more importantly they can be trusted to exercise all the rights of citizenship this bill would force to immediately restore the ri individualized for example is set up an application process that allows an individual review a felon cannot apply until he's been released from supervised probation for three or five years depending upon the crime this is perfectly reasonable given that majority of felons who were rearrested and incarcerated within a short time after their release from prison the fallon also paid all of the court costs fines and restitution this bill would completely override this process at the expense of victims who are still owed restitution and grant relief on a wholesale basis without considering whether someone is really in tile the restoration of those rights the findings of this legislation will quote reintegrate offenders into a free society helping to enhance public safety and also says it's all involving serve no compelling state interest if that is correct then why does this legislation not also restore the other civil rights of convicted criminal may lose such as the right to public employment federal law also provide prohibits felons from owning a gun if public safety will be enhanced by providing felons with the ability to vote why doesn't this bill amend federal law to allow them to own a gun are we to believe they can be back into society as claimed by the bill the supporters of this bill apparently trust felons enough to require the automatic restoration of the right to vote but they don't trust them enough to automatically restore the right to own a gun or to restore all of the other civil rights that are taken away when they are convicted of murder robbery or bribery the american people in their state representatives make decisions the constitution specifically gives on that right if congress wants to change it you have to do it through a constitutional amendment mr good afternoon chairman members of the committee appreciate the opportunity to testify today in support of h r thirty three thirty five i'm not a constitutional scholar but i do think that this legislation will restore the right to vote in federal elections to nearly four million of our tell us citizens whether criminal conviction in their past but who are out of prison and living in the community because i believe that boarding plays an integral role in the successful people coming out of prison i urge you to pass a democracy restoration act i happen to live in kentucky one of the last states in the country to permanently franchise everyone with a felony conviction lest they receive individual discretionary have over thirty seven years of experience in corrections in human service including serving as a director a probation parole board three collin county community corrections department and of develop to manage several community based private sector programs for bender's  working in the community is central to our core mission for this reason a national effort to restore voting rights to people with criminal convictions in two thousand and seven we passed a resolution calling for the restoration of voting rights mission of parole and probation supervision support successful transition from prison to the community civic participation is an intricate part of this transition because it helps transforms one's identity from  the first evidence of a bar to felon voting in our history no one here can forget the florida election of two thousand perhaps the most infamous election in our country's history when most americans can recall problems with butterfly ballots or pregnant chad less well known but of more significance is the role played by the flawed distributed to the sixty seven florida supervisor of elections in the spring of two thousand by florida state officials pursuant to a consent of civil rights it's not working public and governor charlie crist and the florida cabinet based upon the need for fundamental fairness in our process and reforms in two thousand and seven allowing for the restoration of voting rights for all nonviolent offenders the florida legislature when told that forty two new employees would have to be dealt with to deal with the workload necessary not only did not provide the forty hallmark of american politics not just in florida but across the nation and i can tell you that in my tenure as an election administrator in florida nothing has helped our voting but even today even though we have what i consider one of the best databases in the country in terms of voter registration costing twenty three million dollars which was completely funded to federal dollars and an ongoing cost of two and a half million dollars to operate there is one central flaw in the state design of that database no supervisor of elections can look up and identify which of florida citizens have been given the right to have their voting rights restored and in a study that was released last march by florida norm or florida election officials could was properly registered and placed back on the rolls where they should have been again the constitutional arguments here that the manner of an election does not include the right of how one may register or cast a proper manner individual federal elections and it's time we ended the partisan process that is all too often a pertinent to this process and have a rational standard so that all election officials all across the country and all citizens who want to participate in this process don't have to come up to me when i'm in the outside into my community and individuals and i see the look in people's eyes who want to register to vote but they can't they can't register to vote and i can see that and they're ashamed they wear the scarlet letter on their forehead that congressman cohen talked about and there's nothing i can do congressional as soon as an individual has served time that individual should be allowed to register and vote and in conclusion i'd like to cite republican governor charlie crist who in trying to convince the florida cabinet which he successfully did that we needed to make reforms road just cries out for us to do what's right dignity justice honor and at what point do the punished have the right to do a simple chance to come back to society those whose lives we discuss today have served a sentence as they should have but what right do we have to add to that the personal perspective for myself and for the communities i grew up in and almost six years ago i was released from prison at the service six and a half years like most other newly released persons my priorities were securing housing and employment daily want to get an education voting was needed at the top near the top of my list at that time however it was something i thought about very much half way through my prison term i discovered the prison library and ironically it was there why discover what being a citizen of this great country means when i grew up neither my parents had formal education my father did not make past elementary school in his native country my mother did not get an education either i had very few reference points of what i can get an education met and it was in that library with a small group of prisoners who discussed various topics ranging from economics law  understood the self correcting mechanisms and the deep humanity of the society for them there were no enemies only potential allies but both men understood that we all had to live with the result that society creates together today we have created a society that excludes five million people from the ballot this exclusion is at the end of a complicated chain that often begins with poverty and a lack of education involved the criminal justice system  that time i realized what i had thrown away and became determined to turn things around for myself my family and my community after i was released i attended the university of rhode island graduated from bryan university and i'm now in my second year law school my education and my experience provided me with a foundation to believe like my role models that are constitutional law school for correcting done just as a fellow in this franchise me a summer of two thousand and four shortly after my release i pushed my parole officer about boating she answered that i that she was not sure what i could and not because i was a convicted felon her response is emblematic of our national patchwork of laws on this issue which create confusion even for those who should know what the answer is the boy has to find out for myself at that time i was living with i had a job was a month away from beginning my freshman year at the university i polished really fortunate during my time in prison i worked relentlessly to prepare myself for my second chance and my efforts were beginning to pay off now that i had taken care of my most  pressing concerns i could begin to thinking about larger issues one of those larger issues was what was my role as a citizen who had been recently released from prison and whispered to make a difference in the lives of similarly situated men and women at least i shou be able to extract the fundamental role of the citizen plays in our society which is voting ironically i have also tutored many individuals who have gone for the status they shipped and one of the question this is what is the most important right you shown that voting by those who have been arrested is associated with a low rate of recidivism in november two thousand and six my followers on theirs were the first in the nation to go to the polls and approve a ballot referendum to restore water right to people as soon as they were released from prison responsibility and trustworthiness and loyalty that we require of people if they are going to participate in our prize of self government and people who have committed serious crimes against th disenfranchised people who had committed certain misdemeanors not even felonies and it was shown that that law was passed in the reconstruction era explicitly to disenfranchise african americans and chief justice rehnquist and i believe a unanimous opinion for the court struck down as unconstitutional and without regard to the bill as it's written in those no one convicted of a felony sure that ever be allowed to vote again is that correct that is incorrect sir oh i think it's up to the state to decide that issue congress wants to view no i think they should get their vote back under certain circumstances ok that's that's what i'm trying to find but you're in a state that does have lifetime felony preclusion of anyone from voting is that right virginia there is an application right yes or no the answer is no if you apply and meet the standards you can get your right to vote  elections i'm i'm not a member the virginia board of election fairfax county i was just sworn in as a member yes ok so maybe you wouldn't you know whether and that requires a history of racial and it seems to me that it is not beyond the power of experts to provide the committee with an excellent history and once that history exists then i think it's logically absolutely in the civil rights movement hilary shelton for any impressions that you could leave of us to help guide us as we move through this historical affect what happens in practice quite frankly what we've seen happen in practice is i'm happy to see my colleague from florida sitting here something very very different we haven't and a fact african americans and many other racial and ethnic discrimination that actually intimidated many of the african american and other black voters for that matter that went to polls to participate in fact again disenfranchisement in large pockets in the most heavily concentrated african american cities in the country where they're disenfranchised to the point there is no involvement there is no political capital along those lines and much much of the very spirit of our democracy is imported from being able to be implemented so it indeed is a great conversation but in many ways as we look at what it means to everyday people what it means to the very core of our democracy itself raises major concern thank you mr chair i was interested in mr clegg testimony and i wanted to give a chance for the others to respond to the rationale that was posed by your testimony mr like  and they had to do with the policy rationale for being against felony voting first was the rationale that we should not let felons about just as we did not other groups the right to vote so we  also as you state we also deny the vote to citizens non citizens and the mentally incompetent because they like felons fail to meet the objective minimal standards of responsibility trustworthiness and loyalty we require y reintegrated communities had them become stakeholders in the community this is much on me as at the end of a very troublesome chain and that begins with problems in the criminal justice  the fact is i believe in rhode island it was close to eighty percent of people this franchise were nonviolent offenders low level drug offenses we had this franchise and people because of the overcome the litigation on the front end of things which has a i think it would be very difficult for congress at the federal level to kind of fine tuning this is another policy reason wholly apart from the constitutional right this is another policy reason why i think  for congress to leap in here and try to ride a one size fits all that's going to apply to all states which are constantly changing what is a felony what isn't a felony constantly mr newbern believes it's totally constitutional and totally proper but you know after plessy v ferguson there were a lot of people that said that was the law of the land and it went on for fifty eight more years until thurgood marshall had the good sense and the courage to bring a case to the supreme court was not equal and brown versus board of education changed all that and sometimes you can take a position the supping is the law in that there's not standing or there's not venue but the courts can find it now the words manner of election in florida who was allowed to vote determine who was president at state and that affected people in all forty nine states and there should be a basis where an election for president of states if you vote in florida or you can't vote in florida but you could vote in michigan it's not fair people should be able to have the same standards by which they vote to elect the president united states in my opinion and in my opinion we ought to find arguments and make arguments that hopefully a court will accept i have little faith in this court that we have right now to accept those arguments or any arguments but we need to make progress in this country this is two thousand ten you know there were sightings and i don't stand aside and see here on the floor and i use them to founding fathers what what alexander hamilton thought alexander hamilton didn't think women should vote and he didn't make african americans should be free and he didn't think he did own property or couldn't pass and the idea that we should be trapped in a mentality that denies people a chance to vote that because they committed a wrong at one time i mean they are perpetually wrong and never have an opportunity is is is i think anaesthetic to the basis of the founding of this nation and what this nation supposed to stand for now i know the organization mr clegg represents the center for equal opportunity it's a confusing name because you think he's the center for equal opportunity you think us up and else you know i know when george orwell he wrote about the department peace that waged war the department of education that burned books so i guess it's all right because that great literary classic to have something called the center for equal opportunity but i would submit to you what you're talking about is not well opportunity it's a in that one time percent of those in a good election year take the opportunity to vote and exercise their freedoms and their franchise so if you take these people who are supposed to be the bottom of the barrel and give them the opportunity they've got a chance by their proof to show by going to the polls that they're better than seventy five percent of the country that neglect their opportunity to vote but give them a chance and if they want to vote obviously they're better citizens and you think but i would submit to you that this legislation is appropriate  newborns are a well reasoned argument that just like the literacy test and sixty five that people came up that's not the law and you can't do it just like people said civil rights in the law and you can't do it that america needs to bring its resources together as best that people have been affected by those laws and that they are just enfranchise and or disadvantaged because of the long history of jim crow laws in this nation yes you do well where under equal opportunity do that should they get some extra opportunity because the fact that they're starting with a white around their ankle well i think that there are the playing field is not level and in many different ways but i think that there are people of all colors at both ends of the coin and i think that where you and i may differ is that i don't think that you should use skin color as a proxy for whether somebody is poor and whether somebody is disadvantaged or not if you want to jim crow was targeted african americans tell me where you agree that jim crow laws that targeted african americans still affect african americans and how can we remedy that i think that to give you an example you could probably  without too much difficulty show that an individual living in poverty can trace that poverty to the fact that his father was not able to get a good education because  you can do that however there are i don't think that you should say ok well therefore we are going to make a program available to you this other person over here for but the reason for it is because immigrated from troubling attitude for somebody who has taken and can i congratulate you representative going on putting into my mind an argument that i should have thought of but didn't but it is another very powerful reason  to all of the testimony i think we have come to a point to recognize there is discrimination for example in the state of maine in vermont we have members of congress who are here the state of maine has no disenfranchisement for people with criminal convictions except for their philosophy in the representation of their state i see no difference in the members of congress from the states of maine of vermont they don't act erotically they don't seem to espouse unconstitutional on patriotic statements  they don't seem to be perpetrating criminal acts or supporting freeing all criminals across america but yet felons apparently in maine and vermont can vote so you make a very valid point as i look at the whole list and i see some states with some  forms of release or opportunity to vote and some would not we have a constitutional question of whether or not it is a discriminatory practices across the nation because there is inconsistency and i made a deal or have a bounced check in in texas which by the way for the first time in this judiciary committee i can actually say a kind word on the criminal justice system about texas at least they have a compromise and that is attributable to state representative harold dutton and others who work so  without ceasing on this issue but it seems to me if i have a bounced check in texas and i go to another place i am a felon there and cannot vote i was able to vote in texas but i have to go to another state because i'm being relocated because of my spouse can vote that is a patently discriminatory practice and i think that it cries out for relief i hope that the court reporters captured your analysis there because we need to rush right immediately even in a minute for want to make sure we attributed the framework of well it ended at the end of the civil war but after reconstruction as many people know many of the southern states including virginia implemented jim crow laws to suppress the rights of of black citizens and during vote only if you look at the percentages of registration and turnout it varied over time it was a very small amount let me go hang on when what period you were looking at all right displays that were enslaved could they vote in virginia sorry when they were at the time that slavery was no of course they could not vote no doing jim crow could african rolls or colored people vote in virginia a small percentage could depending on where you were and what what years you're looking at but the percentages were very small because of the efforts made to suppress their registration of voting do you think that was a good thing i'm sorry what do you think that was a good thing of course of course not  in the instance of your state and i think you're on the elections and it seems as if you have a complete bar with individuals of felony convictions which i imagine are rate of different completely bar person who has served their time and seeks to restore their contributions to society that you would bar them are they not enslaved to the extent that their constitutional rights or right to express themselves is been denied i don't agree the state of virginia has an application process so people can apply after a certain period of time to get that ride back and the other rights that are taken away how many you for having a bright light on this concept and i think you've made a very important point you recall the election of two thousand when the database came from the state of texas and represented that they were many more felons in your state than the actually were what kind of crisis did that pose for you seems like you were in i know this was a particularly around the florida a m when individuals were trying to vote they were allegations that black men were arrested walking toward the polls obviously a lot of that was investigated but what does that do to the election process that destroys the people's faith that in fact elections have any validity at all that's what it does and i will tell you that today that there are portions of the state of florida around d county where there are large populations of african american in south florida where in fact people do believe that in fact there is no right to vote because of that experience and it's going to take a long long time to reestablish in their minds that this is in fact a nation of laws and justice you made another point and i'd like to ask mr andres i need to get pronounce his last name i'll call you just a moment you made a very valid point that ties into this whole issue  except for an application process but expanded your point and that was the point that people can't be barbers they can't be beauticians and i think some of that spills over into other states this is not a case for that right now but what it says is that we have a completely oppressive system that has people in third class citizenship is that what i'm here for you mr imus essential in the voting sense well it does these individuals have become a permanent underclass in the state of florida and it's a drag on every element of our social institutions education social welfare programs and it impacts on the right to vote where a jurisdiction in leon county the believes and access leon county in fact most extension of the old south plantation there's only about a twelve percent population of african americans in the state of florida but in the panhandle that that average is much higher where near thirty five percent my neighboring county gaston is the only majority minority county in the state of florida and you can see the economic destruction that our own lack of storing the ability to people to integrate themselves into society has left it's a terrible legacy we tried to overcome that in leon county we have a lot of great educational institutions of florida state in florida and in our jurisdiction our jurisdiction is the highest voting jurisdiction in the state of florida eighty six bill would help me if this was to be passed this bill would help if this was to be passed to give more empowerment to individuals i believe in what i believe that people would no longer are redeeming in essence you are restoring your life you are being rehabilitated what is your response to what seems to be the in slave ment of individuals who have previously been incarcerated seem to be a constant state of slavery because they are not allowed to exert their constitutional right for the right to vote i think at the very least when you're in a distressed community and you see the law basically working against us and many steps of the way and that's all you know that's all you see just creates a natural antagonism to the law and to legitimacy of the law i think when we brace individuals that when given the group the rights that are fundamentally fundamental  because the place where i grew up was a small place called me told me about some of these they were thinking through bank me went to the polls with the children the absolute not uncommon and they're much at the same time should a burglar never get to be a barber and there's also collateral consequences such as your criminal history never goes away i mean just minding the harvesting of information informative universal consensus that we may be able to do something there is not a consensus on the bill yet but certainly if we can show intent