More than 400 Floridians with felony convictions have turned to a little-known state form over the past year, hoping to get a straight answer to a question that has haunted them for years: can they legally vote? The form, an advisory opinion request submitted to the state's Division of Elections, is the product of a 2024 legal settlement meant to cut through what advocates long described as bureaucratic confusion surrounding Florida's felony voting rights system.
The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition helped submit those inquiries, according to Orlando Weekly, whose reporting on the process was written by Mitch Perry of the Florida Phoenix. Raven Lightsey of the coalition said the group filed or helped file more than 400 advisory opinions over the past year, a volume that reflects just how many returning citizens remain unsure of their status. The uncertainty traces back to 2018, when Floridians approved Amendment 4, designed to restore voting rights to nearly 1.5 million people with felony convictions once they completed their sentences.
That relief was short-lived for many. The following year, Republican lawmakers passed an implementing bill requiring payment of all outstanding fines, fees, and restitution before voting rights could be restored, according to the same report. Individuals with felony convictions must work through their local clerk of court to fulfill those financial responsibilities, but Florida has provided no centralized database for citizens to research what they might still owe. According to a Florida State University research project, scholars are studying how Florida’s requirement that returning citizens pay all legal financial obligations affects the restoration of voting rights. According to a Georgetown University legal analysis, many jurisdictions include fines, fees, or restitution stemming from convictions among the legal-financial obligations that can affect people after sentencing.
How the Advisory Opinion Process Works
The advisory opinion mechanism itself grew out of a 2023 lawsuit the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition filed against the state over its election system, per Orlando Weekly's reporting. That case was voluntarily dismissed in May 2024 after state election officials agreed during court-ordered mediation to hold public workshops and formalize the request process, according to WLRN. The state's Division of Elections advisory opinion rule was formally issued in November 2024.
Under the rule, the Division of Elections must respond within 90 days of receiving a completed advisory opinion form, and it indicates whether an individual is eligible or ineligible to register and vote, per Orlando Weekly. Under Florida Administrative Code Rule 1S-2.010 and Florida Statutes section 106.23(2), if the division finds no credible and reliable information indicating ineligibility, state law mandates it issue an opinion deeming the applicant eligible. Lightsey said some responses exceed that 90-day mark because of discrepancies in the applications themselves. The Florida Department of State had not provided data on how many advisory opinions it has received or how many responses were completed within the 90-day window, the outlet reported.
The Debt-Tracking Problem Nobody Has Solved
Florida clerks of court have different policies and procedures for processing collection costs and sentencing-related fees, which is part of why the question of who owes what has proven so hard to answer statewide. Kasey Hyde said questions about an individual's financial obligations in local court records must go to the clerk in the county where the case originated, according to Orlando Weekly's reporting. Lightsey has said collection costs are not a barrier to voting, even as clerks' inconsistent recordkeeping remains a practical obstacle for people trying to verify their own eligibility.
State lawmakers have tried to address the gap before. The Florida Commission on Offender Review would have developed a database to help people determine whether their voting rights qualified for restoration, but that effort stalled. More recently, Broward County's Tina Polsky filed SB 132, which would have required a database on voting-rights restoration eligibility; the bill received unanimous approval in two committees, but its House companion never got a hearing. The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition itself opposed centralized legislation like this, with Lightsey saying a centralized repository of people with felony convictions would not be the safest option for returning citizens, out of concern it could expose people who are sensitive to the criminal legal system.
Statewide Scale and Lingering Legal Risk
The stakes behind the paperwork are large. More than 960,000 Florida citizens were barred from voting over a past felony conviction, including roughly 730,000 who had completed their prison or probation terms but remained disqualified solely because of unpaid legal financial obligations, according to The Sentencing Project.
Fear of criminal consequences has also shaped how people approach the process. In August 2022, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that 20 people had been arrested for breaking election law, arrests carried out by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state's election crimes unit; the number of people charged was later amended to 19. Government officials had told some of those charged in 2022 that they could vote, Orlando Weekly reported. Out of those arrests, at least six cases were dismissed by judges and five resulted in plea deals with no jail time as of May 2023, per reporting cited by Democracy Docket.
The legal ground under those prosecutions has kept shifting. A Broward County circuit judge dismissed illegal voting charges against an ex-felon in December 2022 on jurisdictional grounds, ruling that statewide prosecutors are limited to offenses spanning two or more judicial circuits, according to WUSF. In November 2025, Florida's Second District Court of Appeal overturned another voter fraud conviction on similar grounds, finding the Office of Statewide Prosecution lacked constitutional authority to bring the case because the alleged offense occurred entirely within a single county circuit, as reported by Florida Politics.
For now, the advisory opinion form stands as the clearest path Florida offers returning citizens who want written confirmation before they risk registering to vote. Hoodline has previously reported on the state's Office of Election Crimes and Security, the unit established under Senate Bill 524 in 2022 that continues to investigate alleged election law violations alongside state law enforcement. Whether the 90-day process can meaningfully close the gap for the state's roughly 730,000 fine-and-fee disenfranchised residents remains an open question, one advocates and state officials continue to negotiate case by case.
