SERIOUSLY?

Florida Doubles Down on Absurd Voter Fraud Arrests: ‘These Individuals Lied’

Footage showed three of the felons arrested in a recent crackdown on voter fraud—championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis—had no idea they’d committed a crime.

A day after body-camera footage showed just how ridiculous Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ voter fraud crackdown was in August, the state issued an equally absurd statement defending the arrests on Wednesday. “These individuals lied when they registered to vote,” the statement, from the office of Florida’s Secretary of State, said. “We are confident that when all the facts and evidence are revealed through the legal process, these arrests will be upheld in accordance with the law.” To receive convictions for these arrests, the state will have to prove the 20 arrested for voter fraud “willfully” committed the act and didn’t illegally vote by mistake. The footage released earlier this week showed some of the arrested “suspects” appeared to have no idea they weren’t eligible to vote. Many of those arrested as part of the crackdown were felons with a past conviction for murder or a sex crime, who thought they’d regained their right to vote and even received voter ID cards from local election offices. In the body camera footage published Tuesday by the Tampa Bay Times, even the arresting officers appeared apologetic as they took the suspects into custody.