Member Submission: Use Every Opportunity to Speak Up!

THE FOLLOWING IS THE OPINION OF ONE OF OUR MEMBERS AND NOT NECESSARILY THAT OF FLORIDA ACTION COMMITTEE.

As election season really gets going, you may be sent emails and text messages asking for money and polls asking you what your thoughts are. Please take a moment and fill out the comments section(s) on any polls that you receive. Also, you may be surprised to know that poll workers can actually see your replies to mass text messages. They may pass on your sentiments/comments. (Not so much with emails – especially the ones that start with noreply@)

Also, the polls usually make clear that you don’t have to donate in order for your voice to be heard. 

Here is what I have been replying on the polls (where it asks for my comments) and the text messages:

I cannot vote. I am an ex-felon. I did all my time in prison, and I also did all of my probation successfully. I paid all fines, fees, restitution, and court costs.  I fully repaid my debt to society and owe the State of Florida nothing.  It is an entirely clean slate!

Yet my right to vote has not been restored!

Furthermore, I am forcibly interrogated several times a year at the local county jail with no right to refuse! I also have no right to remain silent during those forced interrogations!

I own a beautiful home on a beautiful piece of land (I was homeless with no money when released just 6 years ago). And I pay property taxes. I pay my fair share!

Yet I am forbidden from using the public parks, the public beaches, the tennis courts, the swimming pools and the other public amenities that my taxes go to pay for! I’m an American citizen and a citizen of the State of Florida.

This is outrageous!

I could understand this treatment if the science backed it up. But, after decades of study, the evidence is overwhelming that our registry system does not work – it only serves to name and shame our fellow citizens!