Ron DeSantis’ First Voter Fraud Bust Is Quickly Imploding
The governor’s own administration greenlighted the defendants’ voter registration applications. Now it has arrested them for voting.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made a spectacle out of the round of arrests made by his election police force earlier this month, jailing 20 people on charges of voter fraud and promising more prosecutions to come. At least one target was dragged to jail in his underwear by a SWAT team at 6 a.m. But it turns out that the individuals ensnared in DeSantis’ dragnet had no idea that they could not lawfully vote. The governor’s own appointees flubbed their legal duty to stop them from registering. And because of their sloppy errors, all 20 defendants may well be acquitted of crimes they did not intend to commit.
DeSantis likely hoped they would agree to a plea deal, but voting rights lawyers have already stepped in to ensure that they will fight the charges in court.
Perhaps the governor won’t mind when the criminal case against these voters falls apart. His intention, after all, was to create a chilling effect on others’ rights, frightening eligible residents out of trying to vote. He has put a target on the back of every Floridian who was supposed to regain full citizenship under Amendment 4. Plenty of formerly incarcerated people might look upon this episode as proof that it is not worth attempting to rejoin the electorate.
More arrests to follow?
Looks like only registered citizens are being targeted.
“The names of 22 convicted sex offenders Peter Antonacci, head of the Office of Election Crimes and Security, has forwarded to state attorney Jack Campbell to investigate were on a list of 35 suspected ineligible voters – sex offenders and other felons – researcher Mark Glaeser sent to the Leon and Gadsden elections supervisors’ offices in December. ”
“Glaeser has identified 2,000 sex offenders on Florida voter rolls and says up to 25% participated in the 2020 election. A retired database programmer, he compares the state sexual offender database with county voting rolls to identify sexual offenders suspected of voting. ”
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/09/06/florida-voter-fraud-leon-gadsden-tallahassee-sex-offender-desantis/7971257001/
The researcher doesn’t seem to know how many sex offenders voted and appears to be guessing.
“says up to 25% participated” sure ok.
Frightening and high you could say.
Any constitutional scholars out there?
I was re-reading the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution and noted the phrase “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Isn’t the SO/SP designator due to servitude [incarceration]?
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxv
Is Florida the only state that has laws against registered persons or even ex murders voting? I’m not aware of any other’s.
FL is the only state where former felony sex offenders are constitutionally barred from voting.
As of August 2021, Voting rights retained while in prison for a felony conviction in: Maine, Vermont, and the District of Columbia
Voting rights restored automatically upon release from prison in: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, and Virginia
Voting rights restored automatically upon completion of sentence, including prison, and both parole, and probation in: Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Washington*, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Voting rights restoration can depend on the date or type of conviction, repayment of fines, the outcome of an individual petition to the government, or gubernatorial pardon in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Delaware, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Wyoming.
Source: https://www.nonprofitvote.org/voting-in-your-state/voting-as-an-ex-offender/
I moved to Florida to be with my family after my prison sentence was done. Michigan doesn’t remove anyone’s rights to vote because of my conviction. I’ve never been told anything, not even a hint that Florida has, or will remove that right. I was on Parole for 2 years in Florida and if I violated any law I was promised I would be returning to Prison.
I have voted every year since 2011 and I showed my ID so that I could vote. I plan on voting again and if that means I get locked up because of my constitutional right to vote….well, I guess I need to start saving up some money so I can buy items from the prison commissary.