ORLANDO, Fla. — Curtis Bryant Jr. has an evening routine — he scrolls through the television channels, stopping briefly for headlines on a local station before flipping to the national news.
There’s the back-and-forth impeachment drama and all-too-familiar segments about people working full-time jobs yet struggling to make ends meet. And, since the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub, a short drive from his home, he’s paid close attention to the fight over gun control.
Bryant, 38, says he is more engaged in social and political issues than ever before and that he’s counting down the days until next year’s elections.
“It’s something I never thought of before, when I was running them streets,” said Bryant, who served nearly a decade in prison for selling crack cocaine. “Voting is my voice. It’s a voice I’ve never used, but I’m ready.”
But that might prove difficult.
Bryant is among the roughly 1.4 million Floridians who had their voting rights restored last year by state voters through a ballot measure, known as Amendment 4, that cast a national spotlight on the disenfranchisement of felons, even long after they served their sentences.