Florida announced with great fanfare last week that 20 people had been charged with voting illegally in the 2020 election. That may sound like an early win for the new elections police force that Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Legislature last spring. But this is actually about voter intimidation on the eve of an election.
For perspective, we’re talking about the arrests of 20 people in an election where more than 11 million people voted. At the time, DeSantis boasted that the voting process in 2020 — in which he delivered Florida to Donald Trump — was squeaky clean: “The way Florida did it, I think, inspires confidence. I think that’s how elections should be run.”
Now, though, DeSantis — who announced the arrests in a Broward County courtroom flanked by police officers — apparently believes there is so much voter fraud in Florida that this is just “the opening salvo” for the new Office of Election Crimes and Security.
