I'm Lee Rowland from the ACLU. This is at Liberty. Every week we'll try and make some sense of what's going on in our country, how we got here, and where we're headed next.

On today's episode, we'll be discussing the issue of felony disenfranchisement.

The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is perhaps most famous for promising equal protection of the laws to everyone in America.

It was passed right after the Civil War and it ended legal slavery in the United States.

It also grants citizens the right to vote, but not every

citizen gets that right. Right now, millions of Americans aren't allowed to vote because they

have a felony criminal record. That's called felony disenfranchisement. And because a huge

number of Americans go through the criminal justice system, it affects a lot of people.

Different states have different rules about it, and of all the states, Florida's might be the harshest.

1.6 million Floridians are deprived of their right to vote.

One of those people is Desmond Mead, one of the leading voices behind a ballot measure this year

that will allow Floridians to weigh in on felony disenfranchisement.

But first, we're talking to this guy.

Dale, the first thing which we'll literally just use to introduce you is, you know,

whatever you'd want your quick nugget to be when you come onto the show.

Oh, now?

Yeah.

I mean, or you can wait five seconds, really psych yourself up for it.

Okay.

I'm Dale Ho.

I'm the director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project.

We brought Dale in to help us understand the history and scope of voter disenfranchisement,

...