Florida's Clemency Board has rejected more than 200,000 civil rights applications since Gov. Jeb Bush took office in 1999, the highest rejection rate in at least 16 years, a Herald investigation has found. Bush, head of the board, said he has made improvements since the state fought and lost a 2001 lawsuit that exposed widespread errors in the clemency process. ''I believe in personal redemption, that people can learn from their mistakes, and that people who take those lessons to heart and apply them to their lives deserve a second chance,'' Bush recently wrote to The Herald. He says more felons than ever are regaining their rights, 48,000 in the last six years. But more felons than ever are applying as well. The Clemency Board under Bush has received twice as many applications as it did under Republican Gov. Bob Martinez or Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles. Before the 2000 presidential election, Florida's system for restoring civil rights to felons attracted little attention. Each year, tens of thousands of felons petitioned the Clemency Board in obscurity. Then Florida decided the contentious 2000 election by only 537 votes. And Jeb Bush, the brother of a presidential candidate, had more say than anyone on whether tens of thousands of people could vote in a deeply divided swing state.Although the voting records of elected officials are public, clemency objections are secret and protected by Florida statutes. [more]