Florida’s attorney general on Wednesday asked law enforcement officials to investigate recent fundraising efforts by billionaires and the former mayor of New York City. Mike Bloomberg To pay court fees and other fines so that offenders can vote. The same effort has been won by high profile personalities, including NBA megastar LeBron James.
The basis for the investigation was not immediately clear, but it came a day after Bloomberg announced that it had raised the issue. M 16m To try. Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody said she reviewed the issue at the request of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican. In her letter to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI, A.J. Washington Post article The state plans to raise ਰਾਜ 16 million in the context of Bloomberg’s efforts to promote Joe Biden. He also included a number of state and federal rules that made it clear that no one could pay for their vote.
“After a thorough review of this limited public information and the law, it appears that further investigations have been confirmed. Accordingly, I urge your agencies to investigate the matter further and take appropriate action, “he said. Brief letter
A Bloomberg spokesman said the letter was politicized. “This transparent political ploy is the latest example of an attempt to sterilize Republican Floridians,” the spokesman said. Florida Republican and Trump ally Congressman Matt Gates also called An investigation on Tuesday.
Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) Campaign launched Republicans in Florida have implemented a 2019 law that requires them to pay fines and fees before they can vote again, resulting in fines and fees. The law was passed by Republicans a year ago after Florida voters lifted a lifetime voting ban for serious offenders, giving up to 1.4 million votes in one of the largest extensions to the right to vote. Rights were expected to increase. In US history. Republican law effectively reformed: An estimated 774,000 people could not vote because they had the money.
FRRC Does not ask About someone’s biased relationship when they apply for financial aid. Managers told the Associated Press and the Washington Post that the effort was not made by voters of any particular party.
The group’s executive director, Desmond Mead, said, “Hell with politics, going to hell with any other influences or complications. At the end of the day, it’s about real people, real life, American citizens who want to be a part of it.” Group Executive Director, Told AP this week.
“Different people can give for different reasons, but we have one reason for that, and that reason is to get people involved in politics,” Meade told the Washington Post. “We belong to all classes of people, to all kinds of politics.”
Pamela Carlon, a professor at Stanford Law School, said the federal laws outlined in Moody’s letter were seldom used.
This is not to say that a very jealous lawyer, willing to suppress the vote among returning citizens, will not try to donate funds – or even after the citizens whose fees were paid and then Try to vote, ”he said. “But the idea that we should use government resources to make it difficult for people to vote is really insulting.”
Forita Tolson, a law professor at the University of Southern California, notes Florida Lawyers had indicated in court that the need for people to pay fines and fees was not a poll tax. He said in an email that imposing fines and fees on someone else undermines that argument.
“Throughout the litigation, there is a sensitive disagreement in the state’s argument that the law that pays all fines and fees before voting is not an election tax and that the current situation is that Bloomberg pays these fines and fees to buy a kind of vote. Represents Said. “Either it’s a poll tax or not, but it can’t be one or the other.”
Moody’s letter suggests that Florida may be more interested in blocking voting than collecting outstanding debt, said Julie Ebenstein, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, who challenged the 2019 law.
“Florida has created an unconstitutional system that prevents people from voting until their debts are paid off. Now the state is objecting to the repayment of those loans. The state seems intent on blocking voting instead of collecting payments, ”he said.
The FBI has not received an official copy of Moody’s letter Wednesday afternoon, Andrea Apria said. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment.
