Current Events > looks like DeSantis is cracking down on voter fraud!

(+) Yeah! (+)

When police went to arrest Tony Patterson outside his Tampa home in August, he couldnt believe the reason.

What is wrong with this state, man? Patterson protested as he was being escorted to a police car in handcuffs. Voter fraud? Yall said anybody with a felony could vote, man.

Body-worn camera footage recorded by local police captured the confusion and outrage of Hillsborough County residents who found themselves in handcuffs for casting a ballot following investigations by Gov. Ron DeSantis new Office of Election Crimes and Security.

The Aug. 18 arrests conducted hours before DeSantis called a news conference to tout his crackdown on alleged voter fraud were carried out by state police officers accompanied by local law enforcement.

The never-before-seen footage, obtained by the Times/Herald through public records requests, offers a personal glimpse of the effects of DeSantis efforts to root out perceived voter fraud.

Theyre going to pay the price, DeSantis said during the news conference announcing the arrests.

Of the 19 people arrested, 12 were registered as Democrats and at least 13 are Black, the Times/Herald found.

Romona Oliver, 55, was about to leave for work when police walked up her driveway at 6:52 a.m. and told her they had a warrant for her arrest.

Oh my God, she said.

An officer told her she was being arrested for fraud, a third-degree felony, for voting illegally in 2020.

Voter fraud? she said. I voted, but I aint commit no fraud.

Oliver and 19 others are facing up to five years in prison after being accused by DeSantis and state police of both registering, and voting, illegally.

They are accused of violating a state law that doesnt allow people convicted of murder or felony sex offenses to automatically be able to vote after they complete their sentence. A 2018 state constitutional amendment that restored the right to vote to many felons excluded this group.

But, as the videos further support, the amendment and subsequent actions by state lawmakers caused mass confusion about who was eligible, and the states voter registration forms offer no clarity. They only require a potential voter to swear, under penalty of perjury, that theyre not a felon, or if they are, that their rights have been restored. The forms do not clarify that those with murder convictions dont get automatic restoration of their rights.

Oliver, who served 18 years in prison on a second-degree murder charge, registered to vote at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles on Feb. 14, 2020. Six months later, she updated her address and completed another registration form.

After brief eligibility checks by the Department of State which reports to DeSantis and is responsible for cleaning the rolls of ineligible voters she was given a voter ID card both times.

Oliver wasnt removed from the rolls until March 30 this year, more than two years later.

The recordings by Tampa police and Hillsborough County sheriffs deputies reveal officers who were patient, understanding almost apologetic.

A handcuffed Nathan Hart, 49, found a sympathetic ear when he explained how he ended up registering and voting illegally, according to the sheriffs office recording.

As he stood handcuffed, he told officers that he signed up to vote at the encouragement of somebody at the drivers license place. Records show it was in March 2020.

I said, Im a convicted felon, Im pretty sure I cant, Hart, a registered sex offender, told officers. He goes, Well, are you still on probation?

Harts probation had ended a month earlier, Hart recalled. The person told him to sign up anyway.

He said, Well, just fill out this form, and if they let you vote, then you can, Hart said. If they dont, then you cant.

Then theres your defense, one of the officers replied. You know what Im saying? That sounds like a loophole to me.

Well, we can hope, Hart said.

This is just fucked up

So basically, this is what happened.

- Florida passed an amendment saying convicted felons could vote after their sentence was over.

- DeSantis and other Republicans put in extra hoops for felons to jump through before they can actually vote.

- Felons trying to vote again did not get an explanation of what extra steps they needed.

- Felons who registered to vote were just given voter ID cards without any checks on whether they were actually eligible.

- When people tried to vote using the voter ID cards that Florida issued them, they were arrested for voter fraud.

If youre a felon tho you shouldnt be allowed to vote, yes? So in that case hes doing the right thing. Unless felons can vote in florida.

Any officer who attempts to serve a warrant on someone for voting while a felon should be considered to be violently assaulting the "perp" and the victim should have near unlimited discretion and immunity in exercising self defense.

Don't fucking care if it's legal or not making felons unable to vote is an gross violation of human rights rooted in racism that further encourages an elite upper class as having more say in governance then everyone else via overcriminalization.

And DeSantis continues to be a massive piece of shit. Hope florida comes to its senses and votes him out next election. And he faces charges for that bullshit he did to those immigrants awhile back.

If youre a felon tho you shouldnt be allowed to vote, yes? So in that case hes doing the right thing. Unless felons can vote in florida.

- Felons who registered to vote were just given voter ID cards without any checks on whether they were actually eligible.

Tell me you didn't pay attention to the topic without telling me you didn't pay attention to the topic.

But of course, you're a chud anyways, so you agree with this regardless.

There's your defense.

And idiots throw around the "hurr hurr tell mez you didntz payz attenshun" schtick.

whut

There's your defense.

If youre a felon tho you shouldnt be allowed to vote, yes? So in that case hes doing the right thing. Unless felons can vote in florida.

he didntz payz attenshun

If youre a felon tho you shouldnt be allowed to vote, yes? So in that case hes doing the right thing. Unless felons can vote in florida.

If youre a felon tho you shouldnt be allowed to vote, yes? So in that case hes doing the right thing. Unless felons can vote in florida.

whut

The state shouldn't be tricking people into breaking the law

Any officer who attempts to serve a warrant on someone for voting while a felon should be considered to be violently assaulting the "perp" and the victim should have near unlimited discretion and immunity in exercising self defense.

Remember, if you see something like this, you have every moral and legal right to step in and get the police to back the fuck off the victim.

You need professional help.

You people really have no connection to reality, do you?

It's so infuriating dealing with the half of the country that doesn't give a fuck what these assholes do

But people should have every right to use force to resist grossly unjust arrests.

By this logic, shouldn't the person that okay'd the registration also be convicted of voter fraud?

In a general sense, it very much seems like it is the govt's job to verify that someone is eligible to vote before supplying them with voter registration credentials. It makes no sense to hold citizens criminally liable for knowing whether or not they are eligible

Think we are all aware that voter fraud is something that doesn't exist in America.

If youre a felon tho you shouldnt be allowed to vote, yes? So in that case hes doing the right thing. Unless felons can vote in florida.

Best I can say without getting modded is I hope DeSantis steps in shit everywhere he goes for the rest of his life

It does, but it's overall statistically insignificant.
Here's a huge-ass overly-publicized crackdown across an entire state, and it got... nineteen people.

And was deliberately set up to try and get people to begin with.

Dont get how any of this is legal.