Can Donald Trump vote in the 2024 election? Here’s what to know

CNN
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Whereas Florida typically makes it difficult for individuals within the state with felony convictions to regain their voting rights, former President Donald Trump had no problem casting a poll for himself Tuesday in Palm Seaside.

Trump was convicted in Manhattan earlier this 12 months of 34 counts of falsifying enterprise data tied to hush cash funds earlier than the 2016 election to grownup movie star Stormy Daniels. The primary former US president convicted of a felony, Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on November 26.

Below Florida legislation, if a voter has an out-of-state conviction, Florida will defer to that state’s legal guidelines for a way a felon can regain his or her voting rights.

For Trump, meaning he’ll profit from a 2021 New York legislation that permits individuals with felony convictions to vote so long as they’re not serving a time period of incarceration on the time of the election.

For different Floridians with felony convictions, the principles aren’t so easy.

“Florida is basically behind when it comes to its legal guidelines,” stated Blair Bowie, director of the Marketing campaign Authorized Middle’s Restore Your Vote venture, which is concentrated on ending felony disenfranchisement.

A profitable 2018 poll initiative restoring voting rights to those that had accomplished the phrases of their sentence was gutted by state Republican lawmakers. They handed a legislation requiring that every one the fines and costs related to a conviction are paid – a course of that may be cumbersome, as there may be not a centralized system for monitoring such excellent charges.

The Republican measure including the requirement that every one fines and costs be paid was challenged in court docket, however a conservative appeals court docket finally upheld the legislation. Nonetheless, the litigation uncovered how data of these excellent money owed are stored on the county degree and are sometimes incomplete.

However that bureaucratic morass just isn’t one thing Trump should cope with, as a result of he was convicted in New York.

“Backside line is, it ought to be this simple for everybody, not simply Trump,” Bowie stated.

This story has been up to date with further developments.