Who gave those ex-cons that Florida just arrested the crazy idea they could legally vote? Turns out: the state of Florida. All 18 of those arrested told state investigators they received a voter registration card from their local elections office. And officials in Tallahassee acknowledged it was the responsibility of the state, not the counties, to flag those felons ineligible to vote. The revelations further expose the arrests as an election-year sham and the weaponization under Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida’s new elections police.
Only last month, the governor stood alongside the state’s top elections officials to announce the arrests of 20 people for voting illegally, in what officials described as the opening salvo of a crackdown on election fraud. But the milk soured fast as the state’s own culpability has come into view, and now advocates are urging those arrested to fight the charges, while the Senate sponsor of the felon voting law is musing that the operation may produce no convictions.
“The more that comes out on the arrests, the more I believe the individuals involved had no knowledge or intent to violate the law,” state Sen. Jeff Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican, wrote in a post on Twitter. Because “the state has to prove intent,” he wondered: “Were these people ever notified that they were not eligible to vote? And can we prove that they did it willingly?”
