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

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

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

The train that Meade was going to jump on to take his life never came. He saw it as a sign, crossed the railroad tracks and entered rehab, then moved into a homeless shelter, earned an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree, and finally a degree in in law from Florida International University.

Now, he is 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, a 2018 ballot initiative that gives people the right to vote if they complete their sentences from felony convictions.

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

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

Meade travels the state to different communities in an FRRC bus, implementing programs for people who have completed their sentences to expunge their records, register to vote, find legal services and pay court fees. His work has earned him a 2023 Nobel Peace Prize nomination, a place on Time magazine’s 2019 100 Most Influential People, and a MacArthur Foundation Class of 2021 Fellowship.

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

A year after Florida ratified Amendment 4, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 7066, which Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law, requiring that even after serving time, those who leave the system must to pay all related costs ordered by the court. before being eligible to vote. People convicted of murder or sexual assault are an exception and are not allowed to vote.

For the past eight years, Florida has had the highest number of people released from prison and unable to vote of any state in the country—often because they can’t afford court-ordered fines. , according to The sentencing project.

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

“The State of Florida has charged and is in the process of arresting 20 individuals across the state for voter fraud,” DeSantis announced at a news conference in August 2022.

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 don’t stop being my sons,” Meade said of his children when they let him down. “And I don’t think any person should stop being an American citizen just because of a mistake they made, especially when that mistake is 10, 15, 20 years ago. That doesn’t make sense.”

FRRC work is a family affair for Meade, his wife Sheena Meade and their five children, who canvass communities, knock on doors and run a phone bank to spread voter education and register people to vote.

FRRC has raised approximately $30 million to pay court fees for approximately 44,000 Florida individuals who have completed their prison terms. But Meade said it’s not about who people vote for. Rather, he just wants to get involved in the political process.

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

FRRC Deputy Director Neil Volz was convicted of felony corruption and conspiracy to defraud while working in Washington, DC with now-disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to the Justice Department. Volz first met Meade at an FRRC event in Florida.

“I’ll never forget the words he said. He said no one has a monopoly on the pain of not having copyrights,” Volz told ABC News during an interview in Apopka, Florida. “The vision he shared was much bigger than race, it was much bigger than politics, it was much bigger than economics.”

Meade said Florida’s restrictive voting laws for people released from prison stem from archaic Jim Crow-era legislation passed when African-American voter suppression increased during segregation. Back then, obstacles to voting included poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation tactics — sometimes from law enforcement. But the FRRC founder said he owed it to those who came before him to stand up for the rights they fought for.

“They didn’t do it for them. They did it for me. And if I don’t vote, then what I said is they died for nothing,” Meade said. “That I wasn’t worth the sacrifice they made. And I know I am.”

Henry Walker, who has been released from prison after serving three years for unlawful possession of a firearm, will vote for the first time in the 2024 election thanks to help from the FRRC.

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

Barbara Haynes, a woman who completed her prison sentence and fought for 20 years to gain the right to vote, was finally able to register to vote with the help of Amendment 4 and the FRRC, according to Meade . At that time, he had less than 6 months to live due to a terminal illness.

“Her dying wish was so basic; he just wanted to feel what it felt like to be part of something bigger,” Meade said. “To be part of this democracy.”

Haynes died weeks after she registered to vote and before she could vote, according to the FRRC founder.

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

ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are worried about a friend or loved one, call or text Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free and confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.