Is Donald Trump banned from voting in Florida because of his felony conviction? No, that's not true: Florida allows felons to vote if their conviction took place in another state that has no such ban. Trump was convicted in New York state, where felons are allowed to cast their ballots if they are not in prison. Trump has yet to be sentenced.
The implied claim appeared in a post (archived here) on the X platform on October 19, 2024. It said:
In Florida, convicted felons are not allowed to vote. Trump just sent his mail in ballot. @RonDeSantis, care to comment?
Here's how the post looked on the X platform at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken Mon Oct 21 00:12:00 2024 UTC)
According to media reports (archived here), on August 14, 2024, the Republican presidential candidate voted early in person in Florida's primary election, not through the mail. Below is a screenshot of a news conference he held outside the West Palm Beach, Florida, elections office:
(Source: 25 WPBF News screenshot from Wed Aug 14 2024 taken on Mon Oct 21 14:20:45 2024 UTC)
It is true that felons in Florida are not allowed to vote unless they have completed their sentence. However, Florida law (archived here) defers to the voting rules in the state where the conviction actually occurred.
Trump was convicted in New York, not Florida. The rules for felons voting are different there.
On May 30, 2024, Trump was convicted in New York State Court on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree (archived here), each a Class E felony. Prosecutor Alvin Bragg called it "a scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election" by attempting to hide hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Maximum sentence for each count is four years in prison.
Trump was originally scheduled to be sentenced July 11, 2024, but Judge Juan Merchan ultimately agreed to postpone sentencing (archived here) until after the general election to avoid the appearance that the sentencing was an attempt to influence the election.
New York law (archived here) allows any felon to vote as long as they are "not currently in prison for a felony conviction."
Trump remained free after his conviction. His sentencing is scheduled for November 26, 2024, three weeks after the 2024 presidential election.
