Tampa Bay Times by Steve Bousquet
April 24, 2018
Gov. Rick Scott called an emergency meeting of the Cabinet for Wednesday in anticipation of a federal court not approving a delay in adopting a new system of granting the right to vote to convicted felons.
Underscoring the emergency action, Scott called a meeting of the Board of Clemency by telephone.
Scott acted in the absence of a decision of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, which has not acted on the state’s request to stay a lower court decision that struck down the state’s system of restoring voting rights to felons and ordered a new system to be instituted by April 26.
“This meeting will be open to the public, who will have an opportunity to provide input at the beginning of the meeting,” Scott’s office said in a statement Tuesday night. “If a stay is not issued, the meeting agenda will be for the board to consider how to respond to the lower court’s decision.”
A release from the governor’s office called U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s decision “haphazard.”
The governor’s office and Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is providing legal advice to the clemency board in the case, have not released a formal agenda for Wednesday night’s meeting.
