Florida: Technology Aids State's Long-term Restoration Process

State officials met with residents with felony convictions last week in an effort to describe Florida's new voter restoration policy, review cases and alert individuals of their voting status, Florida Today reported. Laptops were set up to review cases on the spot and how-to pamphlets and hotline numbers were distributed. "Florida gets it, and we are doing things differently now," said Janet Keels, of the Florida Parole Commission. In April, the executive clemency board eased the voting restoration process for those with non-violent records. The state is currently deciding rights restoration eligibility for nearly one million residents.

National: Disenfranchisement Litigation Efforts Need Reform

In an article published in the Journal of Law and Social Change author Daniel M. Katz argues for a new litigation strategy to reform disenfranchisement policy by using the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Katz contends that using the VRA in the context of Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution provides a new opportunity to challenge current policy, and that "statutes imposing lifetime disenfranchisement on all felons are per se violative of the totality of circumstances test" of the VRA. He also argues that Congress has the "unambiguous constitutional authority to pass a statute which enfranchises felons for the Congressional portion of the election ballot."

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