Losing the right to vote after being convicted of a felony leaves six million Americans unable to cast a ballot in U.S. elections. A new report from the Brennan Center for Justice finds 1.6 million of those felons without the ability to vote are in Florida, whose only chance to regain the right to vote is a complex process that "in recent years has denied all but a few hundred applicants."
The issue has even drawn criticism for United State, and Florida in particular, from the United Nations.
Wide-ranging efforts are underway to change Florida's system and restore voting rights to felons who have served their time, including a voter initiative currently under review by the Florida Supreme Court that could end up on the 2018 ballot.
Tuesday at 1 p.m. on Gulf Coast Live, Tomas Lopez with the Brennan Center for Justice in New York explains the reports findings and how Florida's laws make it an outlier when it comes to restoring voting rights to felons.
Also joining the program is Pamella Seay, a professor with the Department of Justice Studies at FGCU, about reform efforts underway in Florida when it comes to restoring voting rights to felons.