DeSantis' anti-democratic election police move Florida closer to a thugocracy
"Political criminality" was given a much broader definition than ever before and more forms of dissent and criticism were gradually criminalized."
In today’s news, Ron DeSantis has just doubled down on his election police as Florida attempts to lead the nation in officially rigging elections while slitting democracy’s throat.
Republicans cannot allow free and fair elections, so they do not. I am not saying that they break the law. They do not have to. They often write it. There is much that is unfair about American politics — the Electoral College and equal representation in the Senate regardless of state population are two egregious examples — but the idea that election winners should write voting rules begs for voter suppression.
Florida’s Republicans and their dime-store despot, Ron DeSantis, are second to none in rigging the game. A year ago, Republicans upped their commitment to one-party rule by establishing an election police force in the land of sunny fascism.
At one point, Florida had some of the most draconian rules on ex-cons voting. Convicted felons looking to restore their franchise rights had to petition the Governor individually. A difficult task at the best of times, it was made nigh impossible by an uninterrupted series of GOP governors since 1999. (NB Charlie Crist was a Republican for his one term.)
Voters restored fairness in November 2018, when nearly 65% of Floridians approved Amendment 4, automatically restoring voting rights to most Floridians with past convictions, who had completed the terms of their sentence. The amendment excluded criminals found guilty of sex crimes or murder.
The GOP was not going to let the voters mess with their thing, so in June 2019, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 7066 into law, prohibiting ex-felons from voting until they paid off certain legal financial obligations (LFOs) imposed by a court pursuant to a felony conviction. A felon may have done their time, but if they could not afford to pay hundreds or thousands of court costs or ancillary fees the law still denied them the vote.
In May 2022, working on the myth that illegal voters were influencing elections, DeSantis created the new “Office of Election Crimes and Security” (OECS) — credit for the name must go to George Orwell — with a budget of $1.2 million and a staff of 15 to track down, arrest, and punish people voting illegally. A dispassionate observer might think that was a reasonable action.
However, statistics show the cynical and self-serving nature of DeSantis’ election purity push. Within weeks 20 people — the majority Black, all previously sentenced for sex crimes — were publicly arrested. What happened next did not make as much of a splash. The Washington Post reports.
One by one, many of the initial 20 arrests announced by the Office of Election Crimes and Security have stumbled in court. Six cases have been dismissed. Five other defendants accepted plea deals that resulted in no jail time. Only one case has gone to trial, resulting in a split verdict. The others are pending.
Anyone who thought this flaccid start was due to teething issues can discard that notion. Since the initial burst of enthusiasm, only four more cases have led to arrests. There are 14 million registered voters in Florida. It is safe to say that illegal voting is not even close to being an issue.
It gets worse. Florida law requires that for a court to convict a person of voting illegally, the state has to prove knew they were voting illegally. Many of those arrested had valid voter cards. It is draconian to be found guilty of illegal voting when the state has authorized you to vote.
That is irrelevant to DeSantis, who has just increased the OECS budget to $3.1 million. DeSantis, despite being a member of the so-called party of fiscal conservatism (stop laughing) has no problem spending the taxpayers' money to score political points. Witness his plan to send undocumented aliens to Martha’s Vineyard by private jet.
DeSantis is not content just wasting money. After some jurisdictional issues, he also pushed through a bill ensuring the statewide prosecutor has jurisdiction over election crime cases. Fairminded observers called foul. Florida had established the state prosecutor position to tackle organized crime operating in multiple jurisdictions. The agency was not intended for election enforcement.
As a bonus, an expansion of the responsibilities of the state office also stripped prosecutorial discretion away from local jurisdictions that might fail to toe Ron's authoritarian line.
However, this is all window dressing. DeSantis knows there are no significant voting shenanigans in Florida. He is not trying to solve a problem. He wants the word on the street that voting in Florida is a risky proposition, one that might get you jailed. Anyone with a prior conviction — no matter how minor and regardless of what documentation they have — may well decide not to take the chance.
I am sure that there are also some, without a criminal record but with long memories, and already distrustful of the authorities in a southern state, who may decide it is too risky to vote. The fact that most of these people are likely Democratic voters will not have escaped DeSantis’ notice.