Nine charged in Alachua County as part of ongoing statewide voter fraud investigation
Nine people have been charged in Alachua County with election crimes, with several more under investigation following complaints filed by a Gainesville database researcher.
At least eight are currently inmates in the county jail, while one was recently released.
The group, all of whom voted by mail from the jail, is the first batch of dozens who could face criminal charges in an ongoing, far-reaching law enforcement investigation spanning the Sunshine State.
Mark Glaeser, who has a history of filing complaints against government officials, identified the group of voters and notified prosecutors last year. He says he has identified nearly 2,000 sex offenders in Florida who illegally registered to vote in the 2020 election, roughly 25% of whom voted.
Those charged in Alachua County on Wednesday are not sex offenders.
In total, he has filed complaints on about 75 sex offenders across 11 counties that he said didn’t meet the threshold to cast ballots following the passage of Amendment 4, which was intended to restore voting rights for people convicted of felonies. Some of those counties include Marion, Lake, Sumter, Gadsden, Leon and Seminole.
If all are proven to have illegally cast ballots, the number of individuals charged would not sway any of the major races in the 2020 election.
Amendment 4, which took effect in 2019, was passed by nearly two-thirds of Florida voters and was supposed to restore voting rights to people with felony convictions, except those convicted of murder or sexual offenses, who had completed their sentences. Republican lawmakers, however, passed a bill requiring that a convicted felon’s fees, court costs and restitution be paid before their voting rights are fully restored.
Let me make this point very clear (and if my logic is wrong, or my facts are wrong, please correct me):
In 2018 a FEDERAL judge found that the Florida process of regaining rights (including the vote) was unconstitutional. — The judge said that the whole idea of people having to appear in front of the governor and a tribunal (since 1868, as I recall) was unconstitutional.
Therefore, the OLD Florida process of regaining one’s right to vote (after a felony conviction) was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge.
The process is unconstitutional … FULL STOP!
We (persons forced to register) are STILL required to undergo an unconstitutional tribunal In order to even TRY to regain the vote.
This process has been declared (by a federal judge) to be unconstitutional.
IF the state of Florida had asserted a compelling governmental interest, and THEN passed legislation, to make us STILL have to undergo this unconstitutional process in order to regain our vote, then we would be excepted from the proscritional against this unconstitutional tribunal system.
BUT…GUESS WHAT???
The State of Florida passed legislation (FL amendment 4) that requires us to undergo an unconstitutional process (the Governor’s tribunal) in order to attempt to get our rights restored WITHOUT ASSERTING a compelling governmental interest.
When we are forced to appear before the governor’s tribunal to beg for the restoral of our right to vote, our federal constitutional rights are being abridged;
for, the government has not elucidated a compelling interest (Nor can they!)
THIS IS A SLAM DUNK. (If anyone cares to fund-raise and litigate it…)
That should say “proscription” above. (Auto correct)
JJJJ
When it comes to those on the registry or with a sex offense, I do not believe there has ever been a slam dunk for us. We have had to swim from the Key west to Alaska, blindfolded while wearing weight belts, just to sometimes even get a hearing and not have it automatically thrown out.
On a select few have even been successful in Florida and getting off the registry. And I am sorry but once off the registry, your charges are still there and the Nextdoor app is still going to bar and harass you. Getting pulled over is still going to be uncomfortable because a sex offense will still come up during an info check. Along with out of country travel and passport issues.
But you have completely missed my point.
The point is that this extremely straightforward.
A federal judge said that having to beg the governor and his panel for restoration of your civil rights is CLEARLY IN VIOLATION OF THE US CONSTITUTION!
PERIOD…FULL STOP!!
So unless Florida actually (not just constructively) elucidates some sort of compelling governmental interest, and then CODIFIES it into law, then they may NOT violate your rights under the US Constitution.
In other words, violating your federal civil rights is a very heavy duty thing. Florida may not do that without going through a whole bunch of process!
But Florida is doing this without any process.
This would be extremely simple to successfully litigate (albeit expensive).
Do you get it now?
Let’s put it another way…an analogy:
If a federal judge rules that making someone eat their vegetables is unconstitutional, then the State of Florida cannot pass a law that says that nobody has to eat their vegetables – EXCEPT for left handed people who are taller than 7 feet.
UNLESS they also state (aver) that there is a compelling government interest in forcing left handed giants to eat their veggies.
So as a class of 7 foot tall lefties, we can easily assert that our federal civil rights are being violated because everyone else has been exempted from veggie eating, but we are still forced to eat them.
(Easy peasy, right?)
JJJJ
I was not trying to cause an argument with you. If you feel that way, I apologize. I was just saying, God himself could come down and tell one of these judges we are being punished by being on the public registry. And the judge would say “In this courtroom, I am god!”.
* There might be a lightning bolt in the area after that statement so stay clear LOL
Let’s see, this gent is using the registry for a purpose it was not intended for and public voting data, i.e. seeing whether one voted or not and if their vote was counted, to corroborate whether they allegedly voted. Did he compare signatures too or leave that to the voting officials? Did he cross ref any released murderers who may have voted?
Does this witch hunt not go against the basic principle of the registry and the fine print about using the public data on it in FLA? One is not supposed to be able to use it this way because it is not supposed to be used to determine whether one committed an election crime or not, but for the public’s alleged safety only of the whereabouts of people on the registry. This would to me seem to be a slam dunk of charging this gent with illegal use of the registry for a purpose it is not intended for each time he did a cross reference. Not saying FLA would do this, but it should. Profiling using the registry is illegal in most states for the actions that could happen, e.g. vigilantism which I would put this under. Maybe someone in FLA could look this up and find way to squash his efforts and let the local gov’t do their jobs.
Of course, I could see this being allowed as a citizen’s report to the local officials and thus, allowing the report to stand based upon their civic duty in their eyes.
Apparently a member of the public is using the registry as intended— to identify people that are breaking the law. (Not that I agree with them doing so).
As long as certain classes of people are being denied the right to vote, those same people should stop paying taxes. No taxation without representation. Maybe people need to be reminded of the American Revolution.
Could not have said it any better! Well worded! No taxation without representation!