2 years ago
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CNN —
Newly obtained constabulary assemblage camera video shows Tampa Police officers arresting confused and stunned convicted felons for allegedly voting illegally successful the 2020 election.
“I voted, but I ain’t perpetrate nary fraud,” Romona Oliver tin beryllium heard saying connected constabulary assemblage cam video obtained from the Tampa Police Department. “I got out. The feline told maine that I was escaped and wide to spell ballot oregon immoderate due to the fact that I had done my time,” she said. Oliver’s lawyer says she received a elector registration paper and thought she was eligible to vote.
The videos, first reported by The Tampa Bay Times, supply a caller glimpse into a far-reaching authorities cognition earlier this summertime to ace down connected expected elector fraud.
On August 18, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested 20 individuals accused of illegally voting successful the 2020 election. He unveiled the charges astatine a celebratory quality league astatine the Broward County Courthouse, wherever helium was flanked by constabulary officers and authorities Attorney General Ashley Moody.
“As convicted murderers and felony enactment offenders, nary of the individuals were eligible to vote,” DeSantis said.
“They did not get their rights restored, and yet they went up and voted anyway,” DeSantis said astatine the time. “That is against the law, and present they’re going to wage the terms for it.”
Mark Rankin, a Tampa-based attorney, who is representing Oliver pro-bono, told CNN that Oliver served astir 20 years successful authorities situation for a condemnation for 2nd grade murder.
“She served her clip and got out. And she got retired astir the clip that Amendment 4 was passed, which affected the rights of felons to vote. Her knowing was that felons had their rights restored.”
Rankin says Oliver was approached astatine the autobus halt 1 time connected the mode to enactment by idiosyncratic registering voters, and she told them she was a felon. The idiosyncratic past told Oliver that she could capable retired the signifier and if she was eligible, she would get a elector registration paper and if she wasn’t eligible, she wouldn’t get the card.
Oliver received a elector registration paper successful the mail. She went to the Department of Motor Vehicles bureau aboriginal to get a caller driver’s licence and was sent an updated elector registration paper with her caller address, according to Rankin.
“She was doubly told by the State of Florida and the section Supervisor of Elections, ‘Here’s your elector registration card. You are, arsenic acold arsenic we’re concerned, legally eligible to vote.’ And truthful she voted and she was shocked erstwhile she was arrested.”
“She was shocked and upset due to the fact that she thought her rights had been restored by the amendment. She didn’t cognize immoderate different. And the State of Florida, she believed, was telling her that she was eligible to vote. And present she’s had the rug pulled retired from nether her. She ne'er would person voted if she knew that she was ineligible,” Rankin said.
Oliver pleaded not blameworthy to the amerciable voting complaint and has a proceedings acceptable for December successful Hillsborough County. County records amusement she was released connected her ain recognizance the aforesaid time she was arrested.
The Tampa Police Department conducted arrests connected behalf of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the originating bureau for the investigation, a constabulary section spokesperson told CNN.
CNN besides reached retired to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, which was progressive successful immoderate of the arrests.
The arrests marked the archetypal nationalist objection of the Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security, a arguable caller investigative bureau created this twelvemonth and championed by DeSantis to probe voting irregularities. Created nether a sweeping measure passed this year to overhaul voting successful Florida, the bureau was fixed a unit of 15 to initiate probes and allowed DeSantis to delegate 10 authorities instrumentality enforcement officers to assistance analyse predetermination crimes.
But astir instantly aft the authorities announced the charges, questions began to aboveground astir the arrests and whether the individuals knew they were violating the instrumentality erstwhile they formed a ballot.
According to authorities law, it is the occupation of the Florida Department of State to “identify those registered voters who person been convicted of a felony” and “notify the supervisor and supply a transcript of the supporting documentation indicating the imaginable ineligibility of the elector to beryllium registered.”
In the 5 counties wherever determination were arrests, the section supervisor of elections bureau told CNN that the authorities did not pass the arrested individuals that they were ineligible to vote.
DeSantis continued to support the arrests and successful a aboriginal quality league blamed immoderate section predetermination offices who, helium said, “just don’t attraction astir the predetermination laws.”
But the Office of Election Crimes and Security wrote a missive to an elections supervisor that the individuals voted illegally “through nary responsibility of your own.” The letter, obtained by CNN, was sent connected August 18 by Pete Antonacci, who served arsenic the archetypal manager of the Office of Election Crimes and Security until helium died September 23 aft a aesculapian occurrence astatine the Florida authorities Capitol.
The arrests captured successful constabulary assemblage cam footage besides are illustrative of the disorder that inactive surrounds a successful 2018 law amendment successful Florida to reconstruct the voting rights of immoderate felons that had completed their sentences.
The law amendment, approved overwhelmingly by voters successful a statewide referendum, said radical convicted of execution and definite enactment crimes were not eligible to person their rights restored.
But the instrumentality that implemented the law amendment specified that an ineligible felon who erroneously votes is successful usurpation of the instrumentality if they “willfully taxable immoderate mendacious elector registration information.” State Sen. Jeff Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican and the sponsor of that legislation, has said connected societal media that astir convicted felons person nary intent to interruption the law.
After the Tampa Bay Times published the assemblage cam video, Brandes tweeted from his verified account, “Looks similar the other of ‘willingly,’” and helium suggested that authorities volition conflict to beryllium its lawsuit successful court.
“I anticipation they person the courageousness to driblet charges oregon spell to proceedings and nutrient grounds of willful intent,” Brandes wrote.
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