TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Desmond Meade, the leader of the political fight to restore the voting rights of more than 750,000 Florida felons, was dealt a setback in his personal quest to have his rights restored Wednesday as two of the state's top Republicans joined together to block his request.


What You Need To Know

  • Desmond Meade appeared before the Clemency Board on Wednesday

  • Meade's initial petition to the Clemency Bosrd was dismissed in 2011

  • Meade said Patronis's reasoning rings hollow

  • Meade is president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition

"We'll take it under advisement," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told Meade during a Clemency Board hearing at the Capitol, dashing the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition president's hopes of having his nonvoting rights, including the ability to practice law, restored.

Meade submitted his initial petition to the Clemency Board more than a decade ago, only to see it dismissed in 2011 when then-Gov. Rick Scott led an effort to overturn the watershed automatic rights restoration process spearheaded by his predecessor, Gov. Charlie Crist, in 2007.

Under the Scott rules, felons must wait seven years after completing their sentences before applying to have their rights restored.

The clemency process had so frustrated Meade that he decided to undertake an effort to amend the Florida Constitution to automatically restore the rights of felons who have completed their sentences.

The passage of Amendment 4 in 2018 was widely hailed as the end of a process with roots in the Jim Crow era of mass disenfranchisement of African-Americans across the South.

"I fight so that everyone could overcome their past mistakes, so everyone could have an opportunity to feel like what it feels like to be a complete citizen again," Meade told the Clemency Board on Wednesday.

Despite Meade's 18-year clean record and his achievements — including being named Floridian of the Year and one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People" — Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis objected to restoring his rights, asking for clarification on a long-ago domestic violence incident.

"There was a domestic violence infraction. I just want to get it cleared up, that's it," Patronis told him.

For Meade, however, Patronis's reasoning rang hollow. Clemency Board staff, he noted, had conducted an extensive probe of his case file that should have provided the board's members with all the information they needed to make a decision.

"It's very arbitrary," Meade told reporters. "You could have someone that has not done half of the things that I've done since turning my life around that could get in. Then, someone like me would appear, and you would think that it's a no-brainer, but there's no rhyme or reason."

Wednesday afternoon, Patronis also called for a probe of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire philanthropist who recently reportedly donated $16 million to Meade's coalition.

The coalition is using the money to pay the court fees and fines of felons so they can register to vote under the terms of Florida's new Republican-crafted Amendment 4 implementation law.

"Spending tens-of-millions of dollars on restitution for certain registered voters doesn't smell right to me," Patronis said in a statement.