(SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL) One in ten Florida adults -- and nearly one in four African Americans – cannot vote because of a felony conviction, by far the highest rate in the nation, a report released on Thursday indicated.
The report by The Sentencing Project, an advocate for voting rights, found that more than 1.5 million felons were disenfranchised in Florida in 2010, including 1.3 million who were longer behind bars.
Florida, a big swing state known for close elections and snafus at the polls, sends an extraordinary number of its residents to prison and has imposed some of the nation's toughest requirements for restoring voting rights. Most states restore voting rights automatically once a felon leaves prison.