Trump is a convicted felon. Here’s why he can still vote today

<i>Evan Vucci/AP via CNN Newsource</i><br/>Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Van Andel Arena

By CNN Newsource

Published November 5, 2024 5:55 AM

By Tierney Sneed, CNN

(CNN) — While Florida generally makes it challenging for people in the state with felony convictions to regain their voting rights, former President Donald Trump will have no issue casting a ballot for himself today in Palm Beach.

Trump was convicted in Manhattan earlier this year of 34 counts of falsifying business records tied to hush money payments before the 2016 election to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The first former US president convicted of a felony, Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on November 26.

Under Florida law, if a voter has an out-of-state conviction, Florida will defer to that state’s laws for how a felon can regain his or her voting rights.

For Trump, that means he will benefit from a 2021 New York law that allows people with felony convictions to vote as long as they’re not serving a term of incarceration at the time of the election.

For other Floridians with felony convictions, the rules are not so simple.

A successful 2018 ballot initiative restoring voting rights to those who had completed the terms of their sentence was gutted by state Republican lawmakers. They passed a law requiring that all the fines and fees associated with a conviction are paid – a process that can be cumbersome, as there is not a centralized system for tracking such outstanding fees.