Leader of felon voter restoration movement speaks on campus

In August 2005, Desmond Meade hit his rock bottom.

He was homeless, addicted to drugs, recently released from prison and without a job.

Meade stood in front of a railroad track waiting to jump, but the train didn’t come.

In a speech at Pugh Hall on Thursday at 6 p.m., Meade talked about how he turned his life around by getting an education and through his current work advocating for the restoration of voting rights to former felons. Meade is the head of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and has given presentations about the issue to the U.S. Congress and the U.N.

Seventeen years after he was released from prison, Meade still hasn’t been able to get his voting rights restored, he said.

“As an advocate for felon re-enfranchisement, I can never get over that pain that I felt recently when my wife ran for office, and someone asked if I was excited to vote for her, and it reminded me I couldn’t vote for my own wife,” Meade said.

About 50 people showed up to hear Meade speak at the event hosted by the Bob Graham Center for Public Service.

“I’m not here for me,” Meade said. “I’m here because there are over 1 million American citizens in the state of Florida who are being told their voice doesn’t matter anymore because they were convicted of a felony.”

Gail Sasnett, the assistant director for public programs at the Graham Center, said they planned to bring Meade to share information on a hot political topic.

“I hope we have educated some citizens and students,” Sasnett said. “It helps them learn about their government and civic engagement. That’s the goal.”

Jamie Lee, a UF statistics and political science junior, said Meade’s cause has been important to her since she first heard him speak at the Florida College Democrats conference in April.

“The issue of felon voting rights is really important to me because it’s really a human rights issue,” the 20-year-old said. “Everyone deserves the right to vote and currently in Florida, people that deserve that right are not getting it, and that needs to change.”

During his speech, Meade announced the petition to get the Voting Restoration Amendment on the 2018 ballot had reached more than 750,000 signatures. Lee said hearing that encouraged her.

“I know the campaign is made up of a lot of hardworking people, and I know that we can get this issue on the ballot,” Lee said.

@Christina_M18

cmorales@alligator.org

Desmond Meade speaks at Pugh Hall on Thursday evening. Meade came to speak about restoring voting rights for felons.