When Kimberly entered her polling place in November of 2000, she expected to cast her vote for president. She had her voter ID card stating she was a registered Democrat and she had just voted in a primary several months before. But when she handed her card to the poll worker, she discovered her name was not on the rolls. Kimberly had been tossed from the voter's rolls because she was an ex-felon, one of an estimated 600,000 in Florida who are unable to vote.

"[Even] if people had a similar name to an ex-felon, they were stopped from voting," said Larry Hyman, an organizer of the Tampa Bay Restoration of Rights Workshop, to be held this Saturday at the Enoch Davis Center in St Petersburg. "There were many mixed signals in the 2000 election. That's why we've organized this workshop, to help everyone who is an ex-felon know how they can get their civil rights restored and be able to vote."

Kimberly's story is typical.*

"I went to prison [for drug possession] in '95 and I got out in '97," she said. "When I got out I went to get my driver's license, and they told me I had to show my voter's ID. They said I had to register to vote before I could get my license. So I went and registered."

In fact, Kimberly voted until the 2000 election, when she was surprised to discover she had been pulled from the rolls.

"Nobody looked into it before," she said. "When I registered in '97 I told them I was an ex-felon and they said it didn't matter. When they told me in 2000 that I couldn't vote, I told them I'd just voted a few months before. I was really surprised. I got no notice, but I was not allowed."

Now she can't get a job in the medical field she's qualified for because, as an ex-felon, she can't get the required exemption without having her rights restored. And that's taking a long time.

"I sent my application in awhile ago, and I called the clemency board in Tallahassee on February 4, and they said they were looking into it, but I still haven't heard anything," she said. "I could have worked with PAR, [a Pinellas County drug rehab center] but they told me I had to have the exemption. They would have hired me right away. I worked for the county, and they made no big issue about my rights. But in any decent job, you have to have the exemption if you're an ex-felon."

Five months before the now infamous presidential election of 2000, Florida's Republican Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, ordered the removal of 57,700 names from Florida's voter rolls on grounds that they were felons. Harris had hired a private company called Choice Point to purge the central voter list.

The NAACP later charged that the purge targeted African-Americans disproportionately, noting that blacks more often vote for Democrats. When the United States Commission on Civil Rights conducted its own investigation after the election, it found that the use of a private company without proper guidance from the highest state levels, coupled with the absence of uniform and reliable verification procedures, resulted in the disenfranchisement of countless eligible voters in 2000.

Estimates now run as high as 93,000 eligible voters who were unable to cast their ballot. But as Nigel Watson, another organizer of Saturday's workshop, said, those numbers are "squishy." No one really seems to know, but everyone who's looked into it concludes there was some hanky-panky.

"Bush had a 537-vote plurality in Florida," said Watson. "He wouldn't have had that if all of those 'false-positives' had voted and if the ex-felons had their rights restored and were able to vote."

Florida is tougher than many states regarding the civil rights of past felons. Here, a past conviction takes away your right to vote as well the right to hold public office, serve on a jury or hold certain occupational licenses. Unless the ex-felon completes a successful appeal to the state's Board of Executive Clemency, these rights are permanently revoked. The Department of Correction is supposed to inform ex-felons about the restoration process when they are released from prison, but often they do not.

Watson also said felons whose rights were restored in other states were purged, and that is illegal in Florida. He said that though Jeb Bush streamlined the application to one page, it doesn't tell people that they should keep a record of every document they send, notify the board of address and phone number changes, and include letters of recommendation.

"If someone moves and the clemency board's decision is returned to Tallahassee, even if approved the reinstatement of rights [for] that person will be denied," he explained.

The workshops, which take place around the state this Saturday, were organized by a coalition of civic organizations who want to help these ex-felons through a process that can be discouraging. Out of approximately 40,000 applications put before the clemency board, only 937 have been granted in the last year. The state claims they don't have the money or staff to devote more time to the application process.

Watson, Hyman and others have donated time and energy to make sure that people who have served their sentences know how to navigate the application process.

Sponsors for the Tampa Bay workshop are the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, the Florida Cannabis Action Network and AAVREC (the African American Voter Research and Education Committee). Scheduled speakers include former state Education Commissioner Betty Castor, state representatives Frank Peterman and Les Miller, and representatives from the Public Defender's office and from the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections. Hillsborough and Pasco counties are also sending representatives.

"Deborah Clark, Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections, is sending a representative to answer questions," said Hyman. "They're also providing a voting machine, and they've offered to help check with clemency boards in other states to help these people. It's wonderful."

And Kimberly agrees.

"I could really use some help, because I've been working on this all by myself," she said. "If we all work together maybe it'll make a difference."

The Tampa Bay felons Restoration of Rights Workshop takes place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 26, at the Enoch Davis Center, 1111 18th Ave. S., St. Petersburg. Food will be provided and there will also be a Job Fair. For more information call Larry Hyman at 727-822-5008 or Nigel Watson at 727-822-9290, or e-mail think@my2sense.net.

*Kimberly, a young African-American mother of four, paid her dues and has her life back on track. She consented to tell us her story, but asked that her last name not be used.

Nano Riley is a free-lance writer in St. Petersburg.

This article appears in Jul 24-30, 2003.