Florida Rights Restoration Coalition: Desmond Meade is on a mission to restore voting rights in Florida for felons

Earlier this month, Desmond Meade recalled a dark time in his life to a church congregation in Apopka, Florida. “Not long ago I was standing in front of the train tracks waiting for the train to arrive so I could jump in front of it,” he said.

It was 2005, and Meade was addicted to crack cocaine, homeless, unemployed, and recently released from prison after being convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Or, as he calls his status at the time: “returning citizen.”

The train that Mead was about to jump in front of to commit suicide never came. He took it as a sign, crossed the train tracks and entered rehab, then moved into a homeless shelter while earning an associate’s, bachelor’s and eventually a law degree from Florida International University.

He is now the founder of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC), an organization that fights for the voting rights of people released from prison and has successfully restored voting rights to more than 1.4 million Floridians through Amendment 4, the 2018 ballot initiative that gives the people have the right to vote if they are serving a sentence for committing criminal offenses.

“We don’t use the F-word because behind that scarlet letter of shame lives a person’s mother, father, sister, brother,” Mead told ABC News during a recent interview at the FRRC office in Orlando, Florida.

“When you talk about a person who has been impacted by the criminal justice system, that’s not a dummy,” Meade said. “Instead of when you look at me and see what’s wrong with this country, man, no, you can look at me and see what’s possible with this country. Man, we’re a nation of second chances; that we are a nation of overcoming against all odds.”

Mead travels around the state to various communities on the FRRC bus, running programs for people who have served their sentences to expunge their records, register them to vote, find legal services and pay legal fees. His work has earned him a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, a spot on Time magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2019, and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2021.

“The faster we help a person reintegrate, the less likely they are to reoffend, and that benefits everyone,” Meade said.

A year after Florida ratified the 4th Amendment, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 7066, which Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law, requiring that even after serving their sentence, those leaving the system must pay all associated costs appointed by the court. before receiving the right to vote. Persons convicted of murder or sexual assault are an exception and are not eligible to vote.

Over the past eight years, Florida has had the largest number of people released from prison and unable to vote of any state in the country, often because they cannot afford to pay court-ordered monetary penalties. , in accordance with Sentencing Project.

In 2022, DeSantis created a new crime and election security unit and announced the arrest of 20 people who allegedly voted after being convicted of murder or a felony sex crime.

“The state of Florida has charged and is in the process of arresting 20 people across the state for voter fraud,” DeSantis said at an August 2022 press conference.

Neither Gov. DeSantis nor Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd immediately responded to ABC News’ request for a statement.

“At the end of the day, my sons never stop being my sons,” Meade said of his children when they disappointed him. “And I don’t think any person should cease to be an American citizen just because of a mistake they made, especially if that mistake happened 10, 15, 20 years ago. It doesn’t make sense.”

The FRRC is a family affair for Mead, his wife Sheena Mead and their five children, who survey the community, knock on doors and operate a phone bank to distribute voter information and register people to vote.

The FRRC has raised about $30 million to pay the legal fees of approximately 44,000 people in Florida who have served prison sentences. But Meade said it’s not about who people vote for. Rather, he simply wants them to engage in the political process.

“If you’re only fighting for the voting rights of people who you think can vote like you, you’re not doing democratic work, you’re doing partisan work,” Meade said. “Our democracy needs less partisanship and more collective participation.”

Neil Volz, FRRC’s deputy director, was convicted of felony corruption and fraud conspiracy charges while he worked in Washington, D.C., with now-disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to the Justice Department. Volz first met Mead at an FRRC event in Florida.

“I will never forget the words he said. He said no one has a monopoly on the pain caused by disenfranchising criminals,” Volz told ABC News during an interview in Apopka, Florida. “The vision he laid out was much bigger than race, was much bigger than politics, was much bigger than economics.”

Meade said restrictive voting laws for people released from prison in Florida stem from archaic Jim Crow-era legislation passed as segregation intensified voter suppression of African Americans. At the time, obstacles to voting included poll taxes, literacy tests and intimidation tactics—sometimes from law enforcement. But the FRRC founder said he owes it to those who came before him to protect the rights they fought for.

“They didn’t do it for them. They did this for me. And if I don’t vote, then I’ll say they died in vain,” Meade said. “That I’m not worth the sacrifice they made. And I know I’m worth it.”

Henry Walker, released from prison after a three-year sentence for illegal possession of a firearm, will vote for the first time in the 2024 election thanks to help from the FRRC.

“FRRC helped provide opportunities. All it takes is an opportunity to tell my story so someone like me, a returning citizen, can see it,” Walker told ABC News during an interview in Orlando, Florida. “And tell yourself, ‘If he can do it, I can do it.’

Barbara Haynes, a woman who spent 20 years fighting for voting rights, was finally able to register to vote through Amendment 4 and the FRRC, Mead said. At that time, she had less than 6 months to live due to an incurable disease.

“Her dying wish was so simple; she just wanted to feel what it was like to be part of something bigger,” Meade said. “Be part of this democracy.”

Haynes died weeks after registering to vote and before she was able to vote, according to the FRRC’s founder.

“And it just tore my heart into pieces,” Meade said. “She didn’t have that opportunity. How many people didn’t get that opportunity?”

ABC News’ Sabine Gebremedhin contributed to this report.

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