Florida Governor Charles Crist, a member of the Stupid Party, just severely damaged his own party’s ability to win statewide elections, and for any given Republican Presidential candidate to win the state. Earlier this year, I praised his voting reform efforts. It took him all of two months to flip-flop; this would make Kerry and Romney jealous.
Most Florida felons will regain voting and other civil rights more quickly after completing their sentences under changes approved Thursday by the governor and the state clemency board
Republican Gov. Charlie Crist pushed the change, saying the rights to vote, hold office and serve on a jury were fundamental to being part of a democratic society.
With 3-1 vote by Crist and the other members of the state’s clemency board, state officials will begin the restoration process for felons once they complete their sentences. Previously, many felons needed to go before the board, which can take years to hear a case because of backlogs.
The change doesn’t include the right to have a gun, which still isn’t restored automatically for people with felony convictions. But it does make it easier for ex-felons to get occupational licenses, denied to people who haven’t had their civil rights restored.
Felons not only do not have gun rights restored “automatically,” they are not restored at all. The only way to restore them is for the Governor(s) of the state(s) where the felon committed his felonies, and/or the President of the United States, if any of his felonies were Federal crimes, to issue (a) full pardon(s), in which case the person would no longer be a convicted felon.
There isn’t agreement on how many eligible ex-felons are out there, though it’s definitely more than a half-million people.
And even if 0.1% of them could have voted and would have voted Democrat in 2000, Al Gore would have become President.
Florida’s previous refusal to erase the prohibition has been seen among many blacks as an unfair effort to limit members of their community from a full place in the state’s civil affairs.
Let me translate that into English: Black political types want more voters for Democrat candidates, so that Democrat Party officials will reward black elected officials and non-elected political hacks with commensurately better sinecures. White liberals in the media want them to vote so that more liberal Democrats of all races win elections.
[...] thanks to Florida’s Republican governor, they soon won’t win much there, [...]
[...] Even if Crist wins the primary and then the general, the good news is that it means very little in the greater scheme of things, as he would be replacing Mel Martinez, another RINO/moderate open borders amnestyaire. The only difference I can see is that Double-M was against the porkulus, while Crist was for it to the point of appearing in public with President Obama to promote it. Related: Gov. Crist Hates White Southerners, Gov. Crist Supports Black Voter Fraud [...]