This is going on in Florida again right now, with the legislature defying a grassroots, voter-approved constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to returning citizens who have served time for criminal offenses.

Voters overwhelming approved the measure, which will in effect largely re-enfranchise people of color, but the Republican Party in the state has already identified a handful of legal hat tricks they can use to suppress the vote — like requiring that fines and fees be paid before voting rights are granted.

For a significant percentage of returning citizens, this financial burden is simply not something they can meet. Maybe ever. So they can’t vote and might not ever be able to vote, despite the plebiscite that was supposed to enfranchise them.