Florida Rights Restoration Coalition: Desmond Meade is on a mission to restore voting rights from felonies in Florida

Desmond Meade was reminding a church congregation in Apopka, Florida, earlier this month of a dark period in his life. “Not long ago I was standing in front of the train tracks waiting for the train to come so I could jump in front of it,” he said.

This was in 2005, and Meade was addicted to crack cocaine, homeless, unemployed, and recently released from prison after being convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon. Or as he expressed his status at the time: “returning citizen”.

The train that Meade was going to jump in front of to kill himself never arrived. He saw it as a sign, crossed the railroad tracks and checked into rehab, later moving into a homeless shelter, earning associate degrees, a bachelor’s degree and eventually a law degree from Florida International University.

He is currently the founder of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC), an organization that fights for the voting rights of people released from prison and successfully restored the voting rights of more than 1.4 million Floridians through Amendment 4, a 2018 ballot initiative. If people complete their sentences for felonies, they have the right to vote.

“We don’t use that ‘F’ word because that person’s mother, father, sister, brother lives behind that letter of shame,” Meade told ABC News during a recent interview at the FRRC offices in Orlando, Florida.

“When you’re talking about a person impacted by the criminal justice system, these are not trivial things,” Meade said. “Instead of looking at me and seeing what’s wrong with this country, no, when you look at me you can see what’s possible in this country. Man, we’re a nation of second chances; we’re a nation of overcoming the odds.”

Meade travels to different communities across the state in an FRRC bus, implementing programs for people who have completed their sentences to deregister, register to vote, find legal services and pay court fees. His work has earned him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in 2023, a spot among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2019, and a fellowship for the MacArthur Foundation’s 2021 class.

“The faster we help a person reintegrate into society, the less likely they are to reoffend, and everyone benefits,” Meade said.

A year after Florida passed Amendment 4, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 7066, signed into law by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which stipulates that system leavers must pay all related court-ordered costs even after serving their sentences. before they are eligible to vote. People convicted of murder or aggravated sexual assault are an exception and are not allowed to vote.

Over the past eight years, Florida has been home to the highest number of people released from prison and unable to vote of any state in the country; This was mostly due to their inability to pay court-ordered monetary sanctions. , accordingly Punishment Project.

In 2022, DeSantis launched a new election crimes and security unit and announced the arrests of 20 people who allegedly voted after being convicted of murder or a felony sex crime.

“The state of Florida has charged 20 individuals statewide for voter fraud and is in the process of arresting them,” DeSantis said at a press conference in August 2022. he said.

Neither Governor DeSantis nor Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd immediately responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

“At the end of the day, my sons don’t stop being my sons,” Meade said of his children who disappointed him. “And I don’t think anyone should give up being an American citizen just because of a mistake they made, especially when that mistake was 10, 15, 20 years ago. That doesn’t make sense.”

FRRC’s work is a family affair for Meade, his wife, Sheena Meade, and their five children, who canvass communities, knock on doors and operate a phone bank to spread voter education and register people to vote.

FRRC has raised nearly $30 million to pay court costs for approximately 44,000 people who have completed prison sentences in Florida. But Meade said it’s not about who people vote for. On the contrary, he just wants them to be involved in the political process.

“If you’re only fighting for the voting rights of people you think can vote like you, you’re not working for democracy, you’re being partisan,” Meade said. “Our democracy needs less partisanship and more collective participation.”

Neil Volz, deputy director of the FRRC, was convicted of felony corruption and fraud conspiracy while working in Washington, D.C., with now-disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to the Justice Department. Volz first met Meade at an FRRC event in Florida.

“I’ll never forget the words he said. He said no one has a monopoly on the pain that criminal disenfranchisement causes,” Volz told ABC News during an interview in Apopka, Florida. “The vision he set was much bigger than race, it was much bigger than politics, it was much bigger than economics.”

Florida’s restrictive voting laws for people leaving prison stem from old Jim Crow-era laws that increased voter suppression against African Americans during Segregation, Meade said. Obstacles to voting at the time included poll taxes, literacy tests, and sometimes scare tactics from law enforcement. But the FRRC founder said he owed it to those who came before him to protect the rights they fought for.

“They didn’t do this for themselves. They did it for me. If I don’t vote, then I’m saying they died in vain,” Meade said. “I’m not worth the sacrifice they made. And I know I am.”

Henry Walker, who was released from prison after serving three years for illegal firearm possession, will vote in the 2024 election for the first time with the help of FRRC.

“FRRC helped provide opportunities. Just being given the opportunity to tell my story so that a returning citizen like me can see it,” Walker told ABC News during an interview in Orlando, Florida. “And tell them: ‘If he can do it, so can I.'”

Barbara Haynes, who completed her prison sentence and fought for 20 years to get the right to vote, was finally able to register to vote with the help of Amendment 4 and the FRRC, according to Meade. At this point he had less than 6 months to live due to a terminal illness.

“His death wish was very simple; he just wanted to feel what it felt like to be a part of something bigger,” Meade said. “This is being part of democracy.”

According to FRRC’s founder, Haynes died weeks after he registered to vote and before he could vote.

“And it broke my heart into pieces,” Meade said. “He didn’t get that opportunity. How many people didn’t get that opportunity?”

ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.

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