[3] Meade's autobiography Let My People Vote: My Battle to Restore the Civil Rights of Returning Citizens was published in 2020; in 2021 he was awarded a MacArthur "Genius Grant.
[9] Meade described his goal as politically non-partisan, and worked closely with Republicans including former GOP lobbyist Neil Volz, who had spent time in prison in connection with Jack Abramoff.
[10][11] Starting in 2015, Meade led Floridians for Fair Democracy in a drive to qualify the "Voting Restoration Amendment" as a ballot initiative for the 2018 Florida elections, collecting 799,000 signatures.
[13] Republican lawmakers in Florida responded to Amendment 4 by passing a new law (SB 7066), disqualifying from voting any felons who had unpaid fines or legal judgments against them.
[14] On appeal, the new law was overturned in May, 2020, by U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, who ruled that the 24th Amendment prohibits Florida from conditioning voting on payment of fines and fees.
"[4] The FRRC raised $28M for people with past felony convictions in Florida who needed to pay fines and fees before they could vote; the obligations of over 44,000 returning citizens were paid before the November 2020 election.
"[18] At a clemency board hearing on September 23, 2020, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis denied Meade the pardon he would need to regain these civil rights.
"[21] Meade's autobiography Let My People Vote: My Battle to Restore the Civil Rights of Returning Citizens was published in 2020 by Beacon Press.
"[6] Publishers Weekly said that Meade "does a skillful job taking readers through the blow-by-blow of the campaign, including the process of writing the actual text of the referendum, and makes a persuasive case that restoring the civil rights of ex-felons will lower rates of recidivism.
[24] In June 2020, Meade was featured in a RepresentUs video focused on highlighting problems with America's criminal justice system.