Florida governor wins voting rights for ex-felons

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters)- Florida officials on Thursday voted to end the practice of stripping ex-criminal offenders of their civil rights, including the right to vote.

Florida is one of just three U.S. states, all in the Deep South, that have maintained long-standing constitutional barriers to restoring civil rights to those that have committed serious crimes, rights groups say.

Meeting in a special session, the Florida Clemency Board agreed by a 3-1 vote to allow some 950,000 ex-felons to automatically have their civil rights restored, removing a barrier that goes back 140 years.

Of course the conservative politicians are scared to death of allowing prisoners to cast a ballot. They've gotten around the Constitution by not allowing prisoners to register to vote and by not providing them ballots. As a result, for hundreds of years, prisoners have been a political underclass. They pay taxes and are obviously subject to the laws and elected officials, but they have no representation. Their vote is given to the rural white conservatives who have long oppressed and exploited the poor and the minorities.