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Bloomberg pays off $20m debts of 31,000 felons so they can vote in Florida

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Re: Bloomberg pays off $20m debts of 31,000 felons so they can vote in Florida

#31

Post by flashyfaffe2 »

mcv wrote: post #16
chrisco255 wrote: post #12

Florida law on this should be concerning for Bloomberg: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?mode=View%20St... Whoever by bribery, menace, threat, or other corruption whatsoever, either directly or indirectly, attempts to influence, deceive, or deter any elector in voting or interferes with him or her in the free exercise of the elector’s right to vote at any election commits a felony of the third degree, pu…

As long as he pays off the fines unconditionally, without asking them who they'd vote for, then I don't see a problem here.

Indeed not a problem per say. However it raises some ambiguities over its real intentions. Timing is too perfect for not pointing that out. But it cannot be blamed blame for working out the system here.

Re: Bloomberg pays off $20m debts of 31,000 felons so they can vote in Florida

#32

Post by yostrovs »

gwicks56 wrote: post #11

Even funnier when you consider he worked out how to game the system and is only paying off the debts of African Americans and Latinos who are registered to vote.

Funnier yet is that he knows who the convicted felons will be voting for. It's cheaper to pay their debt than to convince law biding citizens to vote for your guy.

Re: Bloomberg pays off $20m debts of 31,000 felons so they can vote in Florida

#33

Post by tomohawk »

chrisco255 wrote: post #12

Florida law on this should be concerning for Bloomberg: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?mode=View%20St... Whoever by bribery, menace, threat, or other corruption whatsoever, either directly or indirectly, attempts to influence, deceive, or deter any elector in voting or interferes with him or her in the free exercise of the elector’s right to vote at any election commits a felony of the third degree, pu…

Especially when his widely publicized declared intent is to influence the vote on FL. He has the means. He's declared his motive. He's taking advantage of the opportunity.

Re: Bloomberg pays off $20m debts of 31,000 felons so they can vote in Florida

#34

Post by GoblinSlayer »

>'We know to win Florida we will need to persuade, motivate and add new votes to the Biden column. This means we need to explore all avenues for finding the needed votes when so many votes are already determined,' Bloomberg said

>Other donors include John Legend, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, the Miami Dolphins, the Orlando Magic, the Miami Heat

Then these people talk about bias.

Re: Bloomberg pays off $20m debts of 31,000 felons so they can vote in Florida

#35

Post by mattzito »

yostrovs wrote: post #28
skinnymuch wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn’t make it much (at all?) better to me. It might even make it worse that the explanation should make this any better.

As there are rights and privileges, there are also responsibilities. One is to maintain yourself within the bounds of the law. Seems like if you're not willing to take responsibility for your actions then you don't get to tell others what to do through voting.

Isn't the theoretical point of prison to rehabilitate? We want to take people who have wronged others and get them to take responsibility for their actions and make them productive members of society. Removing voting rights permanently certainly can't increase the engagement of criminals, enough that the voters of florida voted to enfranchise felons.

Re: Bloomberg pays off $20m debts of 31,000 felons so they can vote in Florida

#36

Post by ansaso »

gridlockd wrote: post #23
MulliMulli wrote: post #2

What an absurd voting system.

It is not so absurd to have a system that somewhat disincentivizes politicians from pandering to criminals. If those criminals all were KKK members, you probably would be a little more uneasy about them voting.

In reality they aren't KKK members though. Instead they are disproportionately black and other minorities.

Regardless of whether or not you think incarceration of minorities is systemized disenfranchisement, I think any loophole that hypothetically allows the system to chose who may vote is a bigger threat to democracy than an incentive to appeal to criminals.

Totally agree with your point that incentivizing "pandering to criminals" can be a bad thing though, just the lesser of the two imo.

Re: Bloomberg pays off $20m debts of 31,000 felons so they can vote in Florida

#37

Post by specialist »

This is genius. I was wondering how Bloomberg would spend the $100m he committed to Florida. I had never considered reenfranchising ex-felons.

Money well spent.

The Politico article is more reality-based. https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/09/22/blo...

It's not clear if Bloomberg also paid restitution, money owed to victims, in addition to fines and legal debts.

--

One my besties ran our state's version of FL Rights Restitution Coalition. https://floridarrc.com They successfully updated our laws for process to reenfranchise ex-felons, which was widely acknowledged as even worse than Florida (at the time).

Even more ridiculous than the fines and legal debts is the bureaucracy. Of the 1,000s of ex-felons who'd squared up every year, less than 20 were able to navigate the red tape to actually restore their right to vote.

FWIW, voting rights should never be contingent on fines, debts, restitution. That's flat out unconstitutional, just like poll taxes. Many (most?) states don't even disenfranchise felons. The states that do disenfranchise are whackadoodles.

Re: Bloomberg pays off $20m debts of 31,000 felons so they can vote in Florida

#38

Post by throwaway0a5e »

birdyrooster wrote: post #4
raxxorrax wrote: post #3

This is an actual case of billionaires buying votes, even if the system that disallows voting for inmates is kind of archaic.

Those inmates can vote for whoever they want and it probably won't be for the guy who wrote the 1994 Crime Bill.

I think the prior line of work of that guy's running mate might be the bigger issue.

Re: Bloomberg pays off $20m debts of 31,000 felons so they can vote in Florida

#39

Post by f-securus »

yostrovs wrote: post #28
skinnymuch wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn’t make it much (at all?) better to me. It might even make it worse that the explanation should make this any better.

As there are rights and privileges, there are also responsibilities. One is to maintain yourself within the bounds of the law. Seems like if you're not willing to take responsibility for your actions then you don't get to tell others what to do through voting.

What if some laws are selectively enforced and don’t have a logical reason for even existing? Is it morally okay to ignore those laws until logic and sense prevails? I think it is ironic how some Americans cry ‘freedom’ over wearing masks or taxes but don’t skip a beat in dictating how somebody else treats their own body.

What I’m saying is not all laws are just and being a Felon doesn’t diminish the person’s reasoning capabilities. Felons can easily act as rational as some of these politicians...

Re: Bloomberg pays off $20m debts of 31,000 felons so they can vote in Florida

#40

Post by Infinitesimus »

mattzito wrote: post #35
yostrovs wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As there are rights and privileges, there are also responsibilities. One is to maintain yourself within the bounds of the law. Seems like if you're not willing to take responsibility for your actions then you don't get to tell others what to do through voting.

Isn't the theoretical point of prison to rehabilitate? We want to take people who have wronged others and get them to take responsibility for their actions and make them productive members of society. Removing voting rights permanently certainly can't increase the engagement of criminals, enough that the voters of florida voted to enfranchise felons.

In practice, the general sentiment of prison at least in the US seems to be more for punishment ( see tough on crime laws, etc.) and not rehabilitation.
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