More Than A Vote Raises Money To Help Former Felons Vote In Florida

After an amendment in 2018, voting rights were restored to over 1 million former felons in Florida who were banned from voting for life according to the state’s constitution.

Once this was passed, Republicans passed a measure that made it so the 775,000 former felons would still be unable to vote until they paid their outstanding court fees.

LeBron James saw this injustice and decided he’d do something about it and created More Than A Vote, an organization comprised of Black athletes and entertainers dedicated to helping these individuals secure their voting rights.

More Than A Vote has raised over $100,000 to be donated to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition’s fund. This capital will be funneled to Floridians who are having a hard time paying off their court fees from when they were convicted before they register to vote.

More Than A Vote member Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem released a statement, saying:

“We believe that your right to vote shouldn’t depend upon whether or not you can pay to exercise it, which is why More Than A Vote is proud to partner with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition to ensure that formerly incarcerated American citizens — many of them Black and brown — are able to pay their outstanding fines and fees and register to vote in the 2020 election and beyond.”

Source:
TheRoot