New body-camera footage has shed light on just how ridiculous Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent crackdown on voter fraud truly was, with the involved “suspects” clearly confused and even their arresting officers apologetic.
The crackdown, announced on Aug. 18 with much fanfare, involved the state’s newly formed Election Crimes and Security Office which has cost $1.2 million and so far arrested a whopping 20 people in a state of 21 million.
“They’re going to pay the price for it,” DeSantis said at the time.
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Ever since, however, those arrests have turned out to be little more than a farce, with many cases involving voters who not only had no idea they couldn’t vote but were issued voter ID cards by the state.
The body-cam footage, published by the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday, showed that at least three of the suspects arrested in connection to the announcement had no clue they’d committed a crime.
“What is wrong with this state, man?” said Tony Patterson as cops escorted him to a police cruiser. “Voter fraud? Y’all said anybody with a felony could vote, man.”
A 2018 state constitutional amendment restored the right to vote for most felons. However, it excluded anyone convicted of murder or sex crimes, possibly confusing those who remained ineligible when the 2020 election came around.
Patterson, a registered sex offender, was especially confused why he was being arrested on a random August weekday, two years since he voted.
A Tampa officer who drove Patterson to jail seemed surprised about the charges himself. While en route, the officer said in a phone call recorded by body cameras that he’d “never seen these charges before” in his “entire life,” according to the Times.
“I thought felons were able to vote,” Patterson said. “That’s why I signed a petition form, that’s what I remember. Why would you let me vote if I wasn’t able to vote?”
“I’m not sure, buddy,” an arresting officer answered. “I don’t know.”
Patterson was encouraged to vote by his brother, he told cops, and did so because he thought Florida voters restored that right to him. Instead, he was taken to jail with a third-degree felony charge for something Florida poll workers allowed him to do.
Video from two other arrests in Hillsborough County showed that Patterson wasn’t alone in his confusion.
Romona Oliver, 55, was about to leave for work when police confronted her just before 7 a.m. on Aug. 18.
“Oh my God,” she said outside her car.
An officer approached and told her she was being arrested for voting illegally in 2020.
“Voter fraud? I voted, but I ain’t commit no fraud,” she snapped back.
Oliver said she’d registered to vote at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles on Valentine’s Day in 2020, the Times reported. She was given a voter ID card and voted without issue. When she changed her address later that year, she received a second voter ID card—again, without issue.
It wasn’t until March 30 this year that she was removed from voter rolls. She was not alerted by officials to her wrongdoing until her arrest, and there were no stop guards along the way that warned her she was actually ineligible to vote.
On the day of her arrest, footage showed Oliver pleading with officers to let her tell her husband what was going on while repeatedly saying “oh my God.” The cops placed her in handcuffs, while one officer tried to make sense of what was happening.
“I know you’re caught off guard,” the officer said, “but unfortunately that’s how this stuff works.”
When Oliver again insisted she didn’t commit fraud, the same officer says: “That’s the thing. I don’t know exactly what happened with it, but you do have a warrant and that’s what it’s for.”
Oliver, a seamstress, was released the day of her arrest on her own recognizance, arrest records say. Patterson, a mechanic for Lime scooters, was released five days later after posting a bail of $1,000. Both are Black, as were 11 others arrested for voter fraud in August, the Times reported. Neither could be reached for comment by The Daily Beast on Tuesday, nor could their attorneys.
Recent instances indicate that Oliver and Patterson may be able to have their charges dropped.
Six felon voters had their charges dropped in nearby Lake County, Florida, earlier this year after it was determined they did not “willfully” commit fraud—a requirement for one to be charged with voter fraud in Florida. These arrests were not related to DeSantis’ crackdown.
“In all of the instances where sex offenders voted, each appear to have been encouraged to vote by various mailings and misinformation,” prosecutor Jonathan Olson wrote. “Each were given voter registration cards which would lead one to believe they could legally vote in the election.”
Advocates have urged the Floridians arrested in August to fight their charges, arguing the state’s system for felons to regain voting rights is confusing and disorganized.
Even state Senator Jeff Brandes, a Republican who sponsored the legislation to keep certain felons from regaining the right to vote, acknowledged these people likely had no clue they were breaking the law when they voted.
“The more that comes out on the arrests, the more I believe the individuals involved had no knowledge or intent to violate the law,’’ Brandes tweeted in August. “Were these people ever notified that they were not eligible to vote? And can we prove that they did it willingly?”
Nathan Hart, 49, was the third arrest captured by body-camera footage published by the Times on Tuesday. He also insisted he didn’t break the law willfully, saying he only registered to vote because someone at the “drivers license place” encouraged him to.
“I said, ‘I’m a convicted felon, I’m pretty sure I can’t,’” Hart is heard saying. “He goes, ‘Well, are you still on probation?’”
Having just got off probation, Hart said he responded “no.”
“He said, ‘Well, just fill out this form, and if they let you vote, then you can,’” Hart, a registered sex offender, recalled. “‘If they don’t, then you can’t.’”
Hart’s explanation appeared to fall on sympathetic ears as he was driven to jail, with his arresting officers encouraging him to fight the charges.
“Then there’s your defense,” one of the officers replied. “You know what I’m saying? That sounds like a loophole to me.”
“Well, we can hope,” Hart said.
