DeSantis strikes out in first voter fraud case

[AURex 2,012]

DeSantis held a big news conference to brag about the arrest of 20 people who had voted "illegally." News media showed videos of confused voters being arrested, handcuffed, and taken away by armed officers for their purported crime.

The first case was just thrown out by the court. Most or all of the other cases are likely to be thrown out as well. Why?

1. Voting illegally requires that the person must know they are ineligible. If the local voter registration office sends them a valid voter card, they can reasonably assume they are eligible unless specifically informed they are not.
2. The state elections office is required to notify each voting district of people who are ineligible. The state office did not.
3. State authorities (through the state attorney general's office) only have authority to prosecute in cases in which the accused criminal activity involves two or more counties. If it occurs in only one county, they don't have jurisdiction.

In this case, the court dismissed the case because of #3, but all of these requirements would have to be met for the state to prosecute cases like this. Even the author of the voting bill in the legislature said that the intent of the law was to deter intentional voting when the person knows they are not legally eligible.

Here is the news article regarding dismissal of the first case.

I wonder if any of these folks will sue.

 

[SaltyTiger 7,816]

7 minutes ago, AURex said:

I wonder if any of these folks will sue.

Sue for what?

[AUDub 11,153]

No prosecutor with any sense of decency hammers these people.

Hell the law even says the state would have to prove defendants acted willfully. That's a high burden. 

[BizTiger 242]

40 minutes ago, AUDub said:

No prosecutor with any sense of decency hammers these people.

Hell the law even says the state would have to prove defendants acted willfully. That's a high burden. 

Key part here. Can you really trust that prosecutors haven't been infected with this dictatorship addiction?

[AURex 2,012]

2 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

Sue for what?

I'm not a lawyer. False arrest? Harassment? Defamation?  That's why I asked "I wonder ..."

 

Edited October 22, 2022 by AURex

[CoffeeTiger 5,133]

My theory is that DeSantis and his "Election police force" know very well that none of their arrests are actually going to lead to any convictions. The point is to create fear, doubt, and headlines. 

Make people afraid to vote and afraid that even though the State itself doesn't fully understand it's own voting laws, that they'll come after you for loopholes or obscure violations later down the road. 

 

[AUFAN78 3,911]

It's complicated.

https://registertovoteflorida.gov/home

Edited October 24, 2022 by AUFAN78