A poll tax by any other name

In response to the state's underhanded effort to continue disenfranchising its residents due to unpaid LFOs, 17 impacted Floridians filed suit in collaboration with the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Campaign Legal Center. These cases were consolidated before U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, who in October 2019 denied the state's motion to dismiss the suit and granted a limited preliminary injunction protecting the right of the plaintiffs to vote. Indeed, the Campaign Legal Center has already filed a motion in Alabama citing the Florida precedent. By their estimate, a similar ruling in Alabama would impact somewhere close to 100,000 people who would be eligible to vote but for LFOs still owed.

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