Former President Donald Trump may officially be a convicted felon, but he will likely still be able to vote for himself in Florida this November.
While Florida law bars people convicted of most crimes from voting until they complete all terms of their sentence, Trump, a lifelong New Yorker who changed his residency to Florida in 2019, was sentenced Thursday in his former home state.
The Florida Secretary of State’s website states that a “felony conviction in another state only makes a person ineligible to vote in Florida if the conviction makes him ineligible to vote in the state where the person was convicted.” Under New York state law, even convicted felons can register to vote as long as they are not currently in prison.
For the time being, it is unclear what punishment Trump could receive. His sentencing hearing is currently scheduled for July 11. New York state law calls for a prison sentence of up to four years for each of the 34 charges of falsifying corporate records that Trump was found guilty of on Thursday.
According to The New York Times, Trump could avoid jail time altogether if the judge overseeing the case imposes probation. Trump has also vowed to appeal his conviction, which would impact his voting status.
A 1977 memo from an assistant attorney general to then-Florida Secretary of State Bruce Smathers says convicted felons are not barred from voting during an appeal.
Glenn Burhans Jr., a Tallahassee attorney who practices election law, said if Trump were to appeal the conviction, it would delay any possible incarceration, making him eligible to vote. Similarly, Jerry Goldfeder, director of the Voting Rights and Democracy Project at Fordham Law School in New York, said the judge “won’t jail him if he appeals.”
Still, the jury’s decision has some questioning Trump’s voter status. Some have said outright that he would lose his right to vote.
“Trump cannot vote for himself in the November elections. He can thank the Republicans in Florida for that,” Senator Jason Pizzo, a Democrat and lawyer from South Florida, said on the social media site X on Thursday evening.
In an interview with the Herald/Times on Thursday evening, Neil Volz of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition said “we’re in uncharted territory” about whether former President Donald Trump’s felony conviction would prevent him from voting for himself in the November elections in Florida.
Volz’s group led the work on the 2018 Florida constitutional amendment, which allowed felons in Florida to regain the right to vote.
Typically, “Florida will follow the rules in the state in which the person was convicted,” Volz said. “We’re going to have to work this out because we’re in uncharted territory and we have to let New York’s process play out.”
Volz added: “After New York goes through their process, whether President Trump can vote with a felony conviction will depend on what the state of Florida does.”
He said the US Constitution was clear, however, in that Trump could still run for president and get votes in Florida.
“The Constitution makes it pretty clear that he can run,” Volz said. “For the federal office, the presidency is mentioned in the Constitution.” He added that the federal Constitution would override anything in Florida law.
Volz said his organization saw Trump’s predicament as “an opportunity to shine a light” on “voters’ eligibility for conviction.”
He added: “We believe that no one should be above the law or below the law when it comes to the eligibility of voters for convictions. Everyone should be held to the same standard.”
Trump is widely seen as the favorite to win the state in November. Polls show him well ahead of President Joe Biden, and his single vote will almost certainly have no impact on the general election results.
An NPR/PBS/Marist College poll released Thursday found that 67% of voters said a guilty verdict in Trump’s trial would not affect their vote, while 17% said they would be less likely to would vote for him in November. Another 15% said a guilty verdict would make them more likely to vote for Trump.
Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link did not respond to phone calls and text messages requesting comment on Trump’s voting status. A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
