Former New York City Mayor and former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg continues his efforts against President Donald Trump’s bid for a second term in the White House by getting monetarily involved in a Democratic charity that helps felons regain their ability to vote in the state of Florida.
According to The Blaze, Bloomberg has already raised more than $16 million in funds that are earmarked to pay off court fines of Florida felons so that they will become eligible to vote. The report states that Bloomberg himself has settled the debts of more than 31,000 formerly incarcerated Floridians as Election Day looms.
“Bloomberg aides told The Daily Mail that the former mayor of New York City — who has pledged to spend $100 million to help Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden win on Nov. 3 — rallied other donors and added nearly $17 million to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition’s $5 million raised toward pay off fines owed by felons so that they can vote,” The Blaze reported.
According to the same report, Bloomberg isn’t the only loaded Democrat who is helping the legally challenged to cast a ballot come November.
The Daily Mail reported that “…other donors include John Legend, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, Ben & Jerry’s, Levi Strauss & Co, the Miami Dolphins, the Orlando Magic, the Miami Heat and Steven Spielberg.”
“The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy and no American should be denied that right. Working together with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, we are determined to end disenfranchisement and the discrimination that has always driven it,” Bloomberg said in a written statement, according to The Daily Mail.
The bazaar program gets even weirder, however, when their full game plan becomes clear. According to reports, former prisoners are eligible if they are already registered to vote, their fines are in total less than $1,500 and they are either “black or Latino.”
Even NBC News noted the disparity when they reported that “populations that have historically backed Democrats in larger numbers.”
According to The Washington Post, this was all made possible by the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition lead the push to victory in 2018 which was “a statewide constitutional amendment in 2018 that gave former felons, except those convicted of murder or felony sexual offenses, the opportunity to vote in upcoming elections.”
That measure has been called unconstitutional by a federal judge who referenced it in May, according to The Blaze. The publication also clarified that after the lifetime ban on felons voting was reversed via an amendment, Republicans, who controlled the state legislature, passed a law that the newly minted voters would be allowed to exercise that right, only if they paid all their outstanding court debts. And a Democratic initiative was born.
After Florida’s lifetime voting ban for felons was reversed by an amendment, the Republican-controlled Florida legislature passed a law requiring those convicted felons to pay all outstanding court debts before being allowed to vote.
Florida’s crucial role in the 2020 election is not something that many can forget, especially after the scarring experience that was the 2000 presidential election. However, the sheer force of will to skirt laws that seems to run deep within the Democratic party is something that can almost be admired and must be feared.
What might seem like a lovely gesture at first blush almost always turns out to be a cold, calculating political move to retain power. In the case of Florida, it appears to be coming in the form of racial inequality and voter fraud as well.
