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Videos Show Confusion as Florida Police Arrest People on Voter Fraud Charges [1]

['Michael Wines', 'Neil Vigdor']

Date: 2022-10-19

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida announced in August “a first salvo” of criminal charges in what he called a long-overdue crackdown on voter fraud by his newly created Office of Election Crimes and Security.

But recently released body camera footage indicates that people arrested on charges of voting illegally seemed puzzled and appeared to have run afoul of the law through confusion rather than intent. The arrests targeted people convicted of felonies.

In Florida, under a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2018, many former inmates had their voting rights restored, but others did not, leaving many people uncertain or misinformed about their eligibility to vote.

In the videos that were obtained on Wednesday by The New York Times from the Tampa Police Department, those arrested repeatedly told officers that they were blindsided by the charges and had been cleared to vote by election officials. The videos were published earlier by The Tampa Bay Times.

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[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/19/us/florida-voter-fraud-arrests-video.html

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