Mitchell’s strategy for an Obama victory in Florida: ex-felon registration

Reggie Mitchell, a FAMU alumnus, is shaking up the political world. In a front page Washington Post article, he detailed his ongoing campaign to put tens of thousands of released felons back on Florida’s voter registration rolls. His end-goal: turn the Sunshine State from red to blue during the 2008 presidential election.

"The majority of people to get their rights restored are Democrats, and if we get them registered, [we] might overtake the state," he stated in the Post.

Last year, Gov. Charlie Crist championed a bill that restored voting rights to ex-felons who served time for nonviolent crimes as long as that they “have no charges pending, have paid restitution and have completed probation.” As a result, 115,000 ex-felons are eligible to cast ballots. In August, Crist followed up with an executive order that streamlined the process for distributing “restoration certificates.”

The Florida Conference of Black State Legislators waged an unsuccessful fight to restore ex-felon voting rights for ten years prior to Crist’s election in 2006. Although most of Florida’s convicted felons are white, blacks are disproportionately convicted and imprisoned for such crimes. While many Florida Democrats joined the GOP in defending the law that barred ex-offenders from voting, a large number changed their tune after the disputed 2000 presidential race. During that contest, many black Floridians were wrongfully identified as felons on “purge lists” issued by the Florida Department of State and denied ballots.

A former student body president and executive assistant for President Frederick S. Humphries, Mitchell has also worked as personal injury lawyer and Florida legal director for People for the American Way.

There are already fears that the GOP might use efforts such as Mitchell’s as fodder for “Willie Horton”-styled attack ads against Democratic Nominee Barack Obama. As one respondent wrote in a Washington Post Q&A:

“This just seems like a horrifyingly bad idea from a political perspective. All the McCain campaign [needs] to do is run a bunch of photos of black ex-felons with Obama stickers, and pow, Obama has lost a few swing states full of edgy white voters. Could these efforts in fact end up tilting votes away from the activists' favorite candidates?”

Nonetheless, considering Florida’s history of election problems, registering every possible voter seems a good idea. Besides, Mitchell, who’s appeared on shows such as Lou Dobbs Tonight, knows how to hold his own in a political debate. Who knows? Maybe we’ll soon see Mitchell go head-to-head with Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity.

Check out this clip from 2006, where Mitchell tackles GOP opposition against voting machine paper trails.


Reggie Mitchell On Cnn Lou Dobbs 10-31-2006 via Noolmusic.com