Florida Republicans Create A Poll Tax To Keep People From Voting

Florida Republicans are some of the worst Republicans in this country. After a vast majority of Florida voters passed an amendment this past November giving former felons their right to vote back, the Republicans who control this state went into hyperdrive to prevent these men and women from getting their rights back. They’ve now instituted what amounts to a modern-day poll tax to prevent 1.4 million new voters from going to the polls. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

You know, one of the greatest memes to really erupt over the last few years is the meme of Florida. Man. You know, we have these open records laws here, the state of Florida. So that's why you always see Florida man taunts alligator and then gets eaten and other stupid stuff like that man arrested for holding up a Taco bell with a chicken nugget or whatever it is. But I think the real Florida man story, the real crazy stories out of this state, really originally with our Republican controlled state legislature, you see back in November in the midterms, voters in the state of Florida, by more than 60% of us voted to restore the voting rights of former felons, former convicts, 1.4 million people in the state of Florida. Majority of people in this state stood up and said, we want them to have the right to vote back. They've paid their debt to society, let them vote. The Republicans who run this state, ever since that passed, had been freaking out trying to figure out a way to make it not happen to go against the will of the people after they pass this constitutional amendment. And this week they did it. They finally succeeded. They have passed. Okay?

A new law in our state, as they call it, an attempt to clarify the amendment. And what this new law does is it institutes a poll tax and there's no other way to describe it. It says that, okay, if you're a former felon, you've done your time, you're free. Now we just voted to give you your right to vote back. But before you can register, we want you to pay back all of your court fees. Any legal fees or state fees are liens associated with your prosecution. You know, we had to pay money to prosecute you and put you in jail and you're going to pay us back before you were allowed to go vote. Okay? That ladies and gentlemen is a poll tax, okay?

Poll taxes are illegal, okay? But that didn't stop the moronic Republican's running the state of Florida from putting it in place. That's what we're dealing with. That is the level of stupid that we have right now in my home state. And do you know why Republicans are doing it? I think it's pretty obvious they're doing it because they're terrified. If we suddenly in this state had 1.4 million new voters, okay, that changes. 100% of the electorate in this state absolutely changed forever. And Republicans are terrified of that because they have had a stranglehold on this state for decades, decades. But these 1.4 million new voters would absolutely change that in 2020. So they do what they can, even if it's illegal, even if they know that it's going to be challenged in court and they're going to lose if they can delay for as long as possible, letting these people get the right to vote back. They win.

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