In dozens of cases in Florida, prosecutors have filed charges against people with felony convictions who believed they were eligible to vote, received voter registration cards in the mail and turned out to be ineligible because of their criminal history, The Guardian reports. Many of those cases are being handled by a new statewide unit focused on voter fraud created by Gov. Ron DeSantis. No local prosecutor has brought more charges than Brian Kramer, the elected state attorney in Alachua County, who is prosecuting 10 people.
Kramer, a Republican elected in 2020, said his office has started a program to help those with felonies determine their voting eligibility, though he acknowledged few people had utilized it. “My job is simply to enforce the law as it’s written by the legislature and if it has a deterrent effect, that’s fine,” he said in his office in Gainesville. Voting advocates have decried the prosecutions across Florida as intimidating, designed to dissuade people who are uncertain about their eligibility from voting. “American states have a long, ugly history of using law enforcement to intimidate and suppress voters,” said Blair Bowie of the Campaign Legal Center. “This is clearly what is happening in Florida. We should be paying attention because other states may follow suit.”