2020 Race: Michael Bloomberg pays felons’ fines to help flip Florida for Joe Biden

Michael Bloomberg helps to pay the fines of 32,000 convicted criminals in Florida to help them to take part in the US election.

Mike Bloomberg will pay the fines of hundreds of convicted criminals. Picture: AFP.

Michael Bloomberg has helped to pay the fines of 32,000 convicted criminals in Florida to enable them to take part in the US election as tightening polls put president trump in the lead among those likely to vote there.

Mr Bloomberg, the media billionaire who briefly contended the Democratic presidential nomination, promised to spend dollars 100 million to flip the closely fought southern state, which Mr Trump needs to hold to retain the presidency. Early voting starts there on Thursday.

Mr Trump was buoyed yesterday by a poll showing him four points ahead of Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, among those likely to vote in Florida, while trailing by one point with all registered voters. The contest was even closer in the battleground state of Arizona, with Mr Trump ahead by one point among those likely to vote and Mr Biden ahead by one point with all registered voters. Only last month the Democrat was put as much as eight points ahead in Florida and he retains a ten-day average lead of 1.5. Mr Trump won both states four years ago.

Mr Biden, 77, received his own boost when Cindy McCain, widow of John McCain, the former Arizona senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee, endorsed him.

Mr Trump, 74, has moved his personal residence from New York to Florida and will hold a rally there in Jacksonville on Thursday night as both sides invest resources into the state, which has backed the winner in 13 of the past 14 elections.

Mr Bloomberg, 78, a three-term mayor of New York and longtime adversary of Mr Trump, said that of the dollars 100 million he would spend supporting Mr Biden’s campaign in the state more than dollars 16 million would go towards a fund that pays criminal fines.

Florida’s lifetime voting ban on 1.5 million adults convicted of felonies – the more serious criminal offences – was overturned by a referendum in 2018 but Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor, ruled that sentences must be fully discharged, including all fines and fees, before a return to the electoral roll. Those fines relate to money owed by the criminal to the court system. Mr DeSantis’s ruling effectively disenfranchised 775,000 people, including many African-Americans, who largely vote Democrat.

“The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy and no American should be denied that right,” Mr Bloomberg said.

Joe Biden speaks at a Hispanic heritage event at Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee, Florida. Picture: AFP.

However, he may face his own legal challenge. Matt Gaetz, a Florida congressman close to Mr Trump, said that he had asked the state’s attorney-general to investigate. “It’s a third-degree felony [in Florida] for someone to either directly or indirectly provide something of value to impact whether or not someone votes,” Mr Gaetz said. “So the question is whether or not paying off someone’s fines and legal obligations counts as something of value, and it clearly does.”

Mr Trump held a ceremony at the White House on Wednesday for Cuban-American veterans of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba 59 years ago, an event seen as targeting the largest Latino group in Florida. “I cancelled the Obama-Biden sellout to the Castro regime,” Mr Trump told his invited audience, to applause. “We will not lift sanctions until all political prisoners are freed, freedoms of assembly are respected, all political parties are legalised, and free and fair elections are scheduled.”

Several prominent Cuban-Americans based in Florida gave their support to Mr Trump and praised his efforts to overturn the regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Mrs McCain said that she was backing Mr Biden, who campaigned against her husband during Barack Obama’s run for the White House in 2008 but was also a friend who gave a eulogy at his funeral in 2018.

“My husband John lived by a code: country first,” Mrs McCain said. “We are Republicans, yes, but Americans foremost. There’s only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation, and that is Joe Biden. He is a good and honest man. He will lead us with dignity.”

Last month more than 100 of Mr McCain’s former employees declared their support for Mr Biden.

Mr Trump, who had a long-running feud with Mr McCain, tweeted his verdict: “I hardly know Cindy McCain other than having put her on a committee at her husband’s request. Joe Biden was John McCain’s lapdog. So many BAD decisions on Endless Wars … which I brought from a horror show to HIGH APPROVAL. Never a fan of John. Cindy can have Sleepy Joe!”

Mr Biden thanked Mrs McCain, 66, for her endorsement. “Cindy, I’m deeply honoured to have your support and your friendship. This election is bigger than any one political party. It requires all of us to come together as one America to restore the soul of this nation. Together, we’ll get it done,” he said.

Mr Trump resumed his personal attack on Mr Biden at a rally near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday night, disparaging him again for wearing a mask as a coronavirus safeguard. “What the hell did he spend all that money on the plastic surgery if he’s going to cover it up?” he said.

The FBI and the main US cybersecurity agency warned that “foreign actors and cybercriminals” could sow confusion to stir up Americans if the result of the November 3 elections took some time to come through, as many expect because of the rise in postal voting. This followed a report in The Washington Post that President Putin was personally involved in directing misinformation during this year’s election campaign.

The Times