I'm 63 years old, a Floridian and was convicted of a felony 35 years ago. Since that conviction, I have not had so much as a single moving violation.
This election is the most momentous of my lifetime. I started over a year ago to ensure that I could vote this time, my first since conviction.
I applied for reinstatement of my rights online. Four months later, there had been no reply. My hope was that our new (Republican) governor, Charlie Crist's program of rapid reinstatement of rights to felons would apply. Naturally, in all these years as a convicted felon, cynicism is ingrained in me.
Nonetheless, I called the appropriate office and was told that my rights had been restored in 1985 (though I had not been notified) ... over the fold
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