Newly released police footage from the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday showed confusion amid Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) efforts to crack down on voter fraud in August.
The body camera footage showed police arresting Florida residents for voter fraud in August. Police seemed themselves seemed somewhat confused as they told several stunned Hillsborough County residents that they had warrants for their arrest for voter fraud.
“I guess you have a warrant?” one police officer can be heard telling Tampa resident Tony Patterson in the footage obtained by the Tampa Bay Times.
“For what?” Patterson asks, to which another officer responds, “It’s for voter stuff, man.”
“Oh my god, man, what the …” Patterson says, as the officer explains his situation.
As police handcuffed Patterson, they explained that as a registered sex offender, he was not allowed to vote in the state of Florida. All three of the arrests that the Tampa Bay Times published footage of showed individuals who incorrectly voted amid confusion over recent changes to Florida’s voting laws for felons.
Florida restored voting rights to felons in a 2018 ballot referendum, with the exclusion of those convicted of murder or sex-related crimes. However, confusion has remained over who is eligible to vote.
“I thought … felons were able to vote,” Patterson says in another video. “Why would y’all let me vote if I wasn’t able to vote?”
“I’ve never seen these charges before in my entire life,” an officer arresting Patterson tells someone else over the radio.
Romona Oliver also appeared shocked and confused when police arrested her for voter fraud, the footage showed.
“I’m like, voter fraud?” Oliver says to one of the officers arresting her. “I voted, but ain’t commit no fraud.”
Oliver, who served a prison sentence for second-degree murder, registered to vote at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles in February 2020 and updated her address several months later. She received a voter ID card both times, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Nathan Hart, a registered sex offender who was also arrested for voter fraud, said someone at “the driver’s license place” told him that he could register to vote, even though he was a felon.
“Just fill out the form,” he says the worker told him. “And if you can vote, then they’ll give you a card. If you can’t vote, then you won’t.”
DeSantis created a new agency to investigate election crimes earlier this year, in the wake of former President Trump and other Republicans’ unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Police arrested 19 people for voter fraud in August based on the agency’s investigation, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Those arrested face felony charges that carry fines up to $5,000 and up to five years in prison.