Florida Counties Launch Investigations into Felons Voting in 2020 Election
Probes opened over concerns of ineligible votes cast in presidential election
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Several Florida counties have launched investigations into whether convicted felons cast ineligible votes in the 2020 presidential election.
While some states allowed felons to cast votes in 2020, they are ineligible to do so in Florida.
However, allegations have emerged that felons did in fact cast illegal votes in the election.
A Politico report this week confirmed that investigations are now underway.
The probes were launched after researcher Mark Glaeser began crossing-checking Florida voter lists against lists of the state’s convicted sex offenders and felons still in the Alachua County, Florida, jail.
Glaeser allegedly discovered evidence that an election official in Alachua County was registering felons to vote at the county jail, despite them being ineligible to do so.
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Politico reports [emphasis added]:
The probes or investigations are in varying stages, with some county supervisors forwarding information to local prosecutors and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement or handing it off to the Department of State.
But it appears dozens of potentially illegal voters have been flagged in counties such as Alachua, Duval, Gadsden, Leon and Lake.…
“As such, it is quite possible that some individuals who voted in the 2020 General Election had not satisfied all legal financial obligations or were otherwise ineligible under the parameters of the restoration of voting rights framework,” said Mallory Morgan, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Laurel Lee.
“Eligibility screening continues without ceasing and the Department is hopeful that new FTE positions sought in this year’s budget will assist with this work, which expanded significantly in terms of time and complexity following the passage of Amendment 4 in 2018.”
Morgan added that the department was aware that several counties had received information and noted that they have power to forward complaints to local prosecutors.
FDLE, meanwhile, has acknowledged that it investigated — and forwarded a report to local prosecutors — regarding allegations that a former employee with Alachua’s election office registered people at the jail even though some had felony convictions.
In November 2018, Florida voters approved an amendment that restored voting rights to potentially 1.5 million convicted felons excluding those who committed murder or sex crimes.
The amendment changed state law that had previously placed a lifetime ban on convicted felons voting in local, state, and federal elections.
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This year, at the behest of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Florida legislators approved a measure to set up the Office of Election Crimes and Security to “investigate, detect, apprehend, and arrest anyone for an alleged violation” based on election fraud tips from the public.
Aside from felons, the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) has been uncovering records showing foreign nationals on state voter rolls in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Jersey, and California.
Most recently, PILF reached a settlement with North Carolina election officials to disclose the number of foreign nationals on the state’s voter rolls.
In Florida, PILF has found that, as of November 2021, more than 150 election crime referrals had been forwarded to county election officials.
None of the referrals had been followed up with action at the time of the report, indicating a severe lack of interest in investigating and prosecuting election crimes.
As of 2018, there were nearly 250 counties across the United States with more registered voters on the voter rolls than eligible American citizen voters.
There were also nearly three million individuals who are registered to vote in more than one state.
