Florida would restore Trump’s right to vote if conviction becomes problem, DeSantis says

If there was any doubt, former President Donald Trump’s felony conviction won’t stand in his way of voting for himself in Florida, at least according to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Last week, Trump was convicted on 34 counts in a New York state case of falsifying documents to hide hush-money payments to a porn star in order to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. That night, the press reported that as long as Trump wasn’t incarcerated, he’d likely still be able to vote in Florida come November.

On Friday evening, DeSantis confirmed that and said he’d make sure the state Board of Executive Clemency quickly restored that right for Trump if need be, something others have said DeSantis hasn’t always done for regular Florida felons.

“Former President Donald Trump hasn’t lost his voting rights in Florida. Rights are not removed in Florida where they haven’t yet been stripped in the convicting jurisdiction,” DeSantis tweeted. “That said, given the absurd nature of the New York prosecution of Trump, this would be an easy case to qualify for restoration of rights per the Florida Clemency Board, which I chair.”

DeSantis added: “The bottom line is that Donald Trump’s vote this November will be one of millions that demonstrate Florida is now a solid Republican state!”

The governor is being advised on the matter by a Tallahassee law firm, according to an email inadvertently sent by an attorney to the Herald/Times on Monday. But it would be legal for Florida’s Clemency Board to restore Trump’s right to vote in Florida regardless of what happens in any other state, according to a conflict-of-laws expert who spoke to the Herald/Times.

So far, Trump’s been convicted in New York state court. He also has a pending federal case in Miami, a pending federal case in Washington D.C. and a pending state case in Georgia. And so, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Florida Clemency Board may actually have something to address regarding Trump’s right to vote, as well as his other civil rights, such as the right to run for state office, the right to serve on a jury and the right to carry a gun.

If he is incarcerated in New York, for instance, he would be ineligible to vote in that state. And under Florida law he would therefore be ineligible to vote here. But the state Clemency Board has broad authority to restore rights as it sees fit. Its rules are agreed upon by the board itself, which is composed of the governor and the three members of the Florida Cabinet, all of whom are Republican.

It takes the governor and two other members of the Clemency Board to restore a felon’s rights.

Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, one of the members, is already on board.

“Trump should be granted clemency immediately,” Patronis tweeted shortly after the conviction on Thursday. “This is outrageous.”

And while Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, another Florida Cabinet member, didn’t go that far, he did tweet in support of Trump just after the conviction.

“This disgrace isn’t justice. It’s election interference,” Simpson tweeted. “Looking forward to the real verdict on November 5th.”

Howard Simon, past executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said by email that DeSantis was politicizing the right to vote.

“The right to vote is the essence of democracy. But Gov. DeSantis’ statement reveals that for him it’s all about partisan advantage, saying that he is eager to restore Trump’s right to vote to demonstrate that Florida is a solidly Republican state,” said Simon. “His new found passion for the right to vote should extend to everyone, not just to his authoritarian role model.”

FLORIDA’S CLEMENCY PROCESS

The Florida Constitution grants the governor, with approval of two members of the Florida Cabinet, the ability to restore a felon’s rights, including granting full or conditional pardons, lesser sentences and canceling fines and forfeitures for offenses.

Historically, the Clemency Board, which last met on March 27, has met quarterly. The Florida Commission on Offender Review and DeSantis’ office didn’t respond to questions in time for publication regarding how many times the board has met or how many former felons for whom it has restored civil rights since DeSantis took office in January of 2019.

(In Florida, barring a vote by the Clemency Board, a person convicted of a felony must generally serve out all terms of their sentence before becoming eligible to have their civil rights restored, including the right to vote).

But the board under DeSantis has been accused of restoring few rights in the past.

“So far this year, under this Clemency Board, four [former felons] have gotten their rights back,” then-Democratic Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried told reporters on Oct. 29, 2019 at a pre-legislative session press conference, a comment PolitiFact Florida rated “mostly true.”

Fried put that number in context: “Under Governor [Charlie] Crist, over 155,000 Floridians had their rights restored. Under Governor [Jeb] Bush, over 76,000. Even under Governor [Rick] Scott, more than 3,000 of our fellow citizens earned back their right to participate in society.”

Roughly a year later, Fried told the Herald/Times in a statement that just 30 former felons had their rights restored by that point under DeSantis’ state Clemency Board.

“It’s an absolute mockery that in nearly two years under Governor DeSantis, only 30 Floridians have earned back their rights, compared to 234,000 under his three predecessors,” Fried said.

Voters in 2018 approved a constitutional amendment to automatically restore the right to vote for most people convicted of a felony after they served all terms of their sentence, including fines and fees. But there has been confusion over when these former felons are truly eligible, often relating to outstanding fees in various counties of which they may or may not be aware.

The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition worked with DeSantis’ Clemency Board to update the rules so that a person who has had their voting rights restored would also have other civil rights restored, including the right to run for state office and the right to serve on a jury.

But to restore those rights, former felons must still apply, and have their case investigated by the Florida Commission on Offender Review, which can take years. And once their cases are approved, they have to wait in line for the Clemency Board to approve the restoration, and there’s a backlog, according to Neil Volz, deputy director for the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition.

“As it relates to implementing those changes, we’re not seeing a lot of activity,” Volz told the Herald/Times. “It’s getting bogged down in the bureaucracy a little bit right now.”

Volz added: “There’s still too far of a line for people to fully take advantage of these policies.”

Volz sees Trump’s felony conviction as an educational moment in Florida around restoration of civil rights for people who have served their time. He said he hopes the fact that millions of people in Florida are likely about to vote for a convicted felon will remove some of the stigma.

“The Clemency Board has immense flexibility and power to change their own rules and to make decisions… They definitely have the ability to make a lot of moves that could be helpful to former President Trump,” Volz said. “Our hope would be that any process afforded to former President Trump would be available to regular folks with past convictions as well.”

TRUMP’S OUTSTANDING CRIMINAL CASES

Now that Trump’s New York state case is over, he still has three outstanding criminal cases to go.

One case is in South Florida. It is a federal case following FBI and federal grand jury investigations alleging that Trump refused to return classified documents after he left the White House. He is facing 38 counts in this case, many of which come with a maximum sentence of 20 years, according to the indictment. The judge overseeing it, however, indefinitely postponed the case on May 7, making a ruling unlikely to happen before the November election.

A second federal case brought by the Justice Department is in Washington D.C. and centers on Trump’s alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election and involves the January 6 riot. He is indicted on four counts in that case. On December 13, the judge overseeing the case put it on hold while Trump appealed a ruling that said he doesn’t have broad immunity from criminal charges stemming from his actions while president. That immunity case is now with the U.S. Supreme Court and whether the January 6 case resumes will depend on the high court’s ruling.

The third case is also related to Trump’s alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. This case is a state case in Georgia where a Fulton County grand jury found he sought to interfere with the election results in that state, according to the indictment. The proceedings were sent off course when Trump sought to have County District Attorney Fani Willis removed for having a romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. The request was denied but Trump has appealed the decision. An oral argument on that appeal is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 4, CBS News reported. The Georgia case trial won’t begin until the appeal proceedings finish.

If Trump is convicted in either of the federal cases, he can pardon himself.

If he’s somehow convicted in the Georgia case before November, it won’t affect his right to vote in Florida. That’s because how a conviction plays out in Florida is up to Florida officials, said Kermit Roosevelt, an expert on constitutional law and conflict of laws at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

“I’ve never seen a case, and I’d be awfully surprised if there was a case saying that Florida can’t decide what effect to give to convictions in other states,” Roosevelt said. “What Desantis was talking about there [in his tweet on Friday] was saying: our Board of Clemency can give you relief from this disability that’s imposed by Florida law. And I think that’s pretty clearly okay.”