by Jo Ellen Nott

On August 18, 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced that his new election and security unit had arrested and was charging 20 people across the state with voting illegally in the 2020 election.  Not surprisingly, the group was mostly comprised of Black man who had voted not knowing their previous conviction of murder or a sex offense made them ineligible.

Many of those arrested in the August 18 dragnet believed they were eligible to vote because they were encouraged to register by local officials. Their registrations were approved by the state Division of Elections, and they were issued voter identification numbers and cards by county elections supervisors.

In 2018, Florida voters overwhelming approved Amendment 4, restoring voting rights to people convicted of non-murder or sexual assault felonies who had completed their sentences. The 20 individuals arrested on August 18 were not eligible to be re-enfranchised under Amendment 4 provisions but were told they were eligible, allowed to register, and sent voter registration cards. 

Voting rights advocates say Florida is evading its responsibility to returning citizens by allowing them to register and then arresting them for voting. Critics of DeSantis’ aggressive voter fraud initiative say the widely publicized arrests in August are a set-up that has caused a chilling effect among people who otherwise might be eligible to vote.

In a particularly egregious case from the crackdown, Miami-Dade County resident Robert Lee Wood was approached outside of a Walmart to register to vote in 2020, received a voter registration card in the mail from the state, and voted in the 2020 general election. In a cruel twist of fate, two years later during the August dragnet, Wood’s house was raided by the police, and he was taken into custody—for the crime of voting illegally. 

“Dozens of cops surrounded his house with automatic weapons at 6 o’clock in the morning,” Wood’s lawyer, Larry Davis, told VICE News. “They wouldn’t even let him get dressed.” But by October 2022, the case against Wood had fallen apart. Davis and Democratic state representative Michael Gottlieb filed a motion, which persuaded Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch to dismiss the charges.  David and Gottlieb argued that the case was not multi-jurisdictional and hence not eligible for statewide prosecution. 

Gottlieb summarized the nefarious intentions of Desantis’ Office of Election Crimes and Security saying that Florida’s case against newly re-enfranchised voters is “entrapment” and “outrageous government conduct.”  Gottlieb claims the government should scrutinize a former felon’s application and determine at the beginning that the individual is not entitled to vote.  Instead, the state has taken official measures to place the tedious burden of eligibility on the newly returned citizen, a burden whose financial or bureaucratic toll makes it is difficult if not impossible for the individual to be re-enfranchised.   

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