I'm Lee Rowland from the ACLU, welcome to at Liberty, the podcast where we discuss the most

pressing civil rights and civil liberties topics of our time.

The midterm elections are over and will likely be remembered for high turnout and the end of one-party control of Congress.

But one particular result stands out. Florida's ballot question number four. In a historic change,

Floridians voted to amend their state constitution to restore voting rights to most people convicted of felonies once they've completed their full sentences.

As a constitutional amendment, Question 4 needed over 60% of Florida's vote to pass, and it sailed

over that high margin. It's hard to overstate just how consequential this result is.

In fact, it marks the largest single expansion of voting rights since the 26th Amendment

lowered the voting age to 18 in 1971.

Until yesterday, Florida was one of the few states where residents who had committed a single felony

were disenfranchised for life. That means that before last night, one in ten adults in the state

couldn't vote. Close to one in three black men couldn't vote. The passage of Amendment 4 has given

the right to vote back to over 1.4 million Floridians

who will now be able to reclaim their place in our civic life. To mark this occasion, we're

replaying an earlier episode of At Liberty, where we explored the history of felony disenfranchisement

and spoke with one of the leaders of this historic effort in Florida, Desmond Mead.

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

...