Bloomberg Pays Fines for 32,000 Florida Felons to Vote!

[Joe Mammy 969]

As a Floridian I voted on an amendment that allowed felons to vote after serving their time in 2018. It was passed by a large majority. 

The law was aimed at carrying out a 2018 constitutional amendment that restored voting rights to felons “upon completion of all terms of sentence,” a key phrase that has been at the heart of an appeal by Gov DeSantis in June 2020.

The appeal was upheld. Many thought the reasoning for the appeal was that most of the felons were minorities that would vote for a Dem.

Bloomberg just stepped in with $16M and freed 32,000 felons to vote effectively thumbing his nose at the Republicans. Brilliant!

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/517522-bloomberg-pays-fines-for-32000-felons-in-florida-so-they-can-vote

https://www.law.com/dailybusinessreview/2020/07/22/desantis-administration-presses-case-on-felons-voting-rights/?slreturn=20200822115026

Edited September 22, 2020 by Joe Mammy
added links

[Tolstoy 592]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmoW-gNjjXA

[[scooter] 14,071]

This is.....kind of a dumb move.

Felons don't exactly fall into the "likely voter" category, and around 40% of them are Trump supporters anyway.

Bloomberg would have gotten more bang for his buck by using the $16 million on advertising.

[Tolstoy 592]

2 minutes ago, [scooter] said:

This is.....kind of a dumb move.

Felons don't exactly fall into the "likely voter" category, and around 40% of them are Trump supporters anyway.

Bloomberg would have gotten more bang for his buck by using the $16 million on advertising.

in a state as close as Florida?  not sure I agree.  plus that's the change under his couch cushions.

[Joe Mammy 969]

3 minutes ago, [scooter] said:

This is.....kind of a dumb move.

Felons don't exactly fall into the "likely voter" category, and around 40% of them are Trump supporters anyway.

Bloomberg would have gotten more bang for his buck by using the $16 million on advertising.

Hardly a dumb move if you want more Dem votes. I don't know where you got that 40% from but even if it were true that leaves 60% that are not. 

Reality is the people voted and spoke. DeSantis stepped in and said no, no. Bloomberg overcame DeSantis objection with raised dough and says he's still putting in $100M of his personal money for Biden. Screw DeSantis and his cult leader.

[Mookie 2,477]

6 minutes ago, [scooter] said:

This is.....kind of a dumb move.

Felons don't exactly fall into the "likely voter" category, and around 40% of them are Trump supporters anyway.

Bloomberg would have gotten more bang for his buck by using the $16 million on advertising.

Where did you come up with the 40% figure?  If I had to guess, it would be that a disproportionate number of these felons are black, and will not be voting for Trump, if they vote.  It also highlights the steps that Republicans are taking to disenfranchise minority voters, further cementing their identity as the party opposed to basic democratic ideals. 

[Joe Mammy 969]

13 minutes ago, [scooter] said:

This is.....kind of a dumb move.

Felons don't exactly fall into the "likely voter" category, and around 40% of them are Trump supporters anyway.

Bloomberg would have gotten more bang for his buck by using the $16 million on advertising.

Maybe 40% of the USA felons busted for tax evasion, fraud and other white collar crimes I can see being Trump supporters. But in FL they look at inmates as slave labor cleaning up the highways and the prisons are overwhelmingly full of minorities.

[Jobber 2,343]

This is fantastic.

[[scooter] 14,071]

58 minutes ago, Joe Mammy said:

1 hour ago, [scooter] said:

This is.....kind of a dumb move.

Felons don't exactly fall into the "likely voter" category, and around 40% of them are Trump supporters anyway.

Bloomberg would have gotten more bang for his buck by using the $16 million on advertising.

Maybe 40% of the USA felons busted for tax evasion, fraud and other white collar crimes I can see being Trump supporters. But in FL they look at inmates as slave labor cleaning up the highways and the prisons are overwhelmingly full of minorities.

This study found that 40% of non-Black felons registered as Republican. It's true that 87% of Black felons registered as Democrat, BUT, only around 25% of Florida ex-felons are Black.

Basically, they concluded that the net gain for Democrats was between 8,000 and 48,000 votes.

Edited September 22, 2020 by [scooter]

[Captain Cranks 4,647]

I love to see Bloomberg upholding his promise to help Biden and the Democrats defeat Trump, especially in this manner where it's obvious that Republicans are attempting to suppress the vote.  

[caustic 3,736]

I think this is a good thing to do no matter how many votes it gets Democrats.  

[Joe Mammy 969]

22 minutes ago, [scooter] said:

This study found that 40% of non-Black felons registered as Republican. It's true that 87% of Black felons registered as Democrat, BUT, only around 25% of Florida felons are Black.

Basically, they concluded that the net gain for Democrats was between 8,000 and 48,000 votes.

Things are different today. There are much more than 25% black in the FL prison system.

If you figure in the 17% of blacks in the entire state population and then look at the 47% imprisoned you'll see the disproportion. Here is much better statistics than your Vox:

https://www.vera.org/downloads/pdfdownloads/state-incarceration-trends-florida.pdf

And you do realize that Bush beat Gore in FL by only 537 votes and Trump won by only 113,000. Bloomberg is making a serious impact on the FL outcome for 2020.

 

Edited September 22, 2020 by Joe Mammy

[IvanKaramazov 21,328]

56 minutes ago, Joe Mammy said:

Maybe 40% of the USA felons busted for tax evasion, fraud and other white collar crimes I can see being Trump supporters. 

You're forgetting the felons who are former Trump attorneys, former Trump advisors, former Trump business associates, and other pro-Trump felons.

[[scooter] 14,071]

30 minutes ago, Joe Mammy said:

Things are different today. There are much more than 25% black in the FL prison system.

Current prisoners are not allowed to vote. The study from 2016 showed that 28% of ex-felons in Florida were Black. Was there a disproportionate release of Black prisoners in Florida in the past 4 years?

I realize that every vote counts; I just don't see much bang for Bloomberg's buck here.

[dawgtrails 779]

9 minutes ago, [scooter] said:

Current prisoners are not allowed to vote. The study from 2016 showed that 28% of ex-felons in Florida were Black. Was there a disproportionate release of Black prisoners in Florida in the past 4 years?

I realize that every vote counts; I just don't see much bang for Bloomberg's buck here.

A question I would have is what are the demographics of ex-felons who couldn't pay off their fines in order to vote

[Mile High 5,123]

30 minutes ago, [scooter] said:

Current prisoners are not allowed to vote. The study from 2016 showed that 28% of ex-felons in Florida were Black. Was there a disproportionate release of Black prisoners in Florida in the past 4 years?

I realize that every vote counts; I just don't see much bang for Bloomberg's buck here.

You think he just pulled this out of his ###? I think he knows where his money gets the most bang. 

[SoBeDad 2,250]

27 minutes ago, [scooter] said:

Current prisoners are not allowed to vote. The study from 2016 showed that 28% of ex-felons in Florida were Black. Was there a disproportionate release of Black prisoners in Florida in the past 4 years?

I realize that every vote counts; I just don't see much bang for Bloomberg's buck here.

There will be an election for governor and senator in 2022. Hopefully Bloomberg continues to support voter rights campaigns in Florida beyond the presidential election. A charismatic, but flawed, Gillum lost by a razor thin margin to DiSantis in 2018: 33,000 votes, 0.4%. 

[Phil Elliott 1,114]

So payment to influence voting?

[Tolstoy 592]

4 minutes ago, Phil Elliott said:

So payment to influence voting?

like driving someone without a car to the polling place?

[Phil Elliott 1,114]

7 minutes ago, Tolstoy said:

like driving someone without a car to the polling place?

Is that a payment?

[Jobber 2,343]

14 minutes ago, Phil Elliott said:

So payment to influence voting?

Ask the GOP, they set it up like this.

[Stealthycat 1,660]

can Trump just send $500 to people and ask them for his vote please ?

I mean we're seeing buying votes across the nation in multiple ways, might as well stop pretending and just allow it, right ? 

[Trey 644]

2 hours ago, caustic said:

I think this is a good thing to do no matter how many votes it gets Democrats.  

Eliminating barriers to voting is a good no matter the electoral benefit. 

[johnnycakes 1,175]

30 minutes ago, Phil Elliott said:

So payment to influence voting?

Its the American way.

[whoknew 8,764]

53 minutes ago, Phil Elliott said:

So payment to influence voting?

 

34 minutes ago, Stealthycat said:

can Trump just send $500 to people and ask them for his vote please ?

I mean we're seeing buying votes across the nation in multiple ways, might as well stop pretending and just allow it, right ? 

 

Did Bloomberg ask them to vote for someone in particular? Or ask them to vote at all?

I must have missed that in the article.

[SoBeDad 2,250]

27 minutes ago, whoknew said:

 

 

Did Bloomberg ask them to vote for someone in particular? Or ask them to vote at all?

I must have missed that in the article.

Good point. Also, why should wealthy felons be allowed to vote but not poor felons? The state can't even tell how much many people owe, as county records are sometimes kept in shoeboxes. What Rick Scott did as governor, compared to Charlie Crist, to slow walk the pre-Amendment 4 felon voting restoration process was pure voter suppression. 

[Maurile Tremblay 22,276]

4 hours ago, [scooter] said:

This is.....kind of a dumb move.

Felons don't exactly fall into the "likely voter" category, and around 40% of them are Trump supporters anyway.

Bloomberg would have gotten more bang for his buck by using the $16 million on advertising.

This might be a more effective form of advertising than extra television ads at the margin.

As 2016 showed, being on the news is better than being in commercials. This will probably make the news.

[SaintsInDome2006 47,463]

My first thought was this is righteous but I’m thinking this is more about Bloomberg than Biden. It’s been blood from a turnip getting Bloomy to follow up on his promise to deliver funds.

[tommyGunZ 4,637]

5 hours ago, caustic said:

I think this is a good thing to do no matter how many votes it gets Democrats.  

This.  

[AAABatteries 24,510]

5 hours ago, [scooter] said:

Current prisoners are not allowed to vote. The study from 2016 showed that 28% of ex-felons in Florida were Black. Was there a disproportionate release of Black prisoners in Florida in the past 4 years?

I realize that every vote counts; I just don't see much bang for Bloomberg's buck here.

What if Florida has a repeat of 2000?

[The Commish 13,445]

4 hours ago, Phil Elliott said:

So payment to influence voting?

As much as dumping court costs etc into the poll tax created by the GOP legislature here, yes.  That's to say "no".

[The Commish 13,445]

We talked about Bloomberg's focus on money in this state in the Florida Politics thread.  An actual voter freed to vote in this state is more important than an advertisement in a day/age where 90-95% of people have made up their minds.  Besides, it's not like we aren't getting bombarded by advertisement already.  

[The Commish 13,445]

4 hours ago, Stealthycat said:

can Trump just send $500 to people and ask them for his vote please ?

I mean we're seeing buying votes across the nation in multiple ways, might as well stop pretending and just allow it, right ? 

I kinda wish he would, then we could throw him in jail once and for all  

[quick-hands 363]

Bribe?   

[Cowboysfan8 7,633]

I wonder how many children in our country that are hungry or can’t afford good home school supplies due to the pandemic could’ve benefited from that much money?

What a joke imo

[beef 2,502]

4 minutes ago, Cowboysfan8 said:

I wonder how many children in our country that are hungry or can’t afford good home school supplies due to the pandemic could’ve benefited from that much money?

Totally agree.  I really wanted to see the $1 trillion HEALS Act signed into law too.

[whoknew 8,764]

9 minutes ago, Cowboysfan8 said:

I wonder how many children in our country that are hungry or can’t afford good home school supplies due to the pandemic could’ve benefited from that much money?

What a joke imo

And now the gov't can use it to feed them or buy school supplies.

[Cowboysfan8 7,633]

1 minute ago, whoknew said:

And now the gov't can use it to feed them or buy school supplies.

sure

[Tolstoy 592]

25 minutes ago, Cowboysfan8 said:

I wonder how many children in our country that are hungry or can’t afford good home school supplies due to the pandemic could’ve benefited from that much money?

What a joke imo

always wondered what this was called.  apparently it’s the fallacy of relative privation.

[Maurile Tremblay 22,276]

33 minutes ago, Tolstoy said:

59 minutes ago, Cowboysfan8 said:

I wonder how many children in our country that are hungry or can’t afford good home school supplies due to the pandemic could’ve benefited from that much money?

What a joke imo

always wondered what this was called.  apparently it’s the fallacy of relative privation.

It's related to The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics.

[whoknew 8,764]

49 minutes ago, Cowboysfan8 said:

sure

You don't think the FLA gov't will spend it on that? Why not?

[Cowboysfan8 7,633]

12 minutes ago, whoknew said:

You don't think the FLA gov't will spend it on that? Why not?

I don’t really have confidence in any part of this country’s govt to do the right thing 

eta: and this predates the term of our current president 

Edited September 23, 2020 by Cowboysfan8

[Boston 3,002]

Bernie Sanders can not be happy with this.

[quick-hands 363]

For blacks and Hispanic only getting the money?

Edited September 23, 2020 by quick-hands

[tri-man 47 8,746]

9 hours ago, IvanKaramazov said:

You're forgetting the felons who are former Trump attorneys, former Trump advisors, former Trump business associates, and other pro-Trump felons.

Not sure how many are in Florida, but nevertheless ...

[The Commish 13,445]

2 hours ago, Cowboysfan8 said:

I wonder how many children in our country that are hungry or can’t afford good home school supplies due to the pandemic could’ve benefited from that much money?

What a joke imo

Probably not as many as the money the candidates are going to be wasting themselves trying to convince 5% of the country that the other guy is a bigger moron   Here, at least it's a step in the right direction for democracy.  That can't be said, with sincerity, about these campaigns.  

[Maurile Tremblay 22,276]

20 minutes ago, quick-hands said:

For blacks and Hispanic only getting the money?

For $16 million, it's got to be more than for.

[The Commish 13,445]

Matt Gaetz  

[Joe Mammy 969]

22 minutes ago, The Commish said:

Matt Gaetz  

I had lunch with him in 2010. He is undeniably one of the greatest <changed-my-profane-noun> on the planet. A true cultist, poopersmooching follower of the orange one. I would expect no less from him. I am really enjoying watching the republicans squirm at Bloombergs' play. Bravo to the Bloom!

[The Commish 13,445]

35 minutes ago, Joe Mammy said:

I had lunch with him in 2010. He is undeniably one of the greatest <changed-my-profane-noun> on the planet. A true cultist, poopersmooching follower of the orange one. I would expect no less from him. I am really enjoying watching the republicans squirm at Bloombergs' play. Bravo to the Bloom!

Sounds like my experience with Tom Cotton