Florida’s ‘cash register justice’ leaves many felons still ineligible to vote despite passage of Amendment 4

By Claire Goforth

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Ten years ago, Rosemary McCoy never would have imagined that today she’d be in a Jacksonville library, tears streaming down her face, as she tells a stranger how it feels to be disenfranchised.

Then she was a real estate professional with two decades’ experience, a wife, mother of two, an average, everyday citizen living a good life.

Today she scrapes by on meager wages earned collecting petition signatures. Thanks to felony convictions in 2015 on charges associated with renting homes without authorization, the 61-year-old’s former life is long gone. So are her voting rights.