Thousands of Floridians, maybe eligible to vote in November and don’t know it. Ex-felon’s who’ve had their civil rights restored can register to vote. But many of them don’t know it.

It’s possible more ex-felon’s will cast ballots in this presidential election than in any other election in state history. Thousand of ex-felons are eligible to vote… but they don’t know it.

The governor signed an order last year to automatically restore the right for some nonviolent offenders.

Since then more than a hundred thousand ex-felons have had their civil rights restored, but many of them haven’t been notified.

Jan Tillman, a spokeswoman for the Florida Parole Commission, says the commission is trying to break the good news to former felons but sometimes they have old contact information and funds are tight.

“We don’t have any money. So we’re trying to be as creative with little money and still get the message out there.”

The commission is reaching out to ex-felons through conferences and public service posters. Reggie Mitchell works with the People for the American Way Foundation. The Foundation is devoted to helping former offenders get back on their feet.

“If you get people back into the pipeline, if you get them registered to vote, you’re recidivism rate drops tremendously, so they’re less likely to victimize other people.”

Both political parties would like to see the newly registered cast ballots for their candidate.

“Democracy doesn’t categorize voters, if you’re eligible to vote and participate, we’re going to be out there reaching out to you and spreading the message.”

Written reports suggest Presidential hopeful Barack Obama would benefit most from the state’s ex-felon vote.

People for the American Way Foundation (www.restoremyvote.org) has set up a database for ex-felons to check and see if they’ve had their rights restored… We’ve link their website to ours.