DeSantis elections chief told local officials they'd bear 'no fault' for illegal voter registration: report

On Monday, POLITICO reported that the top elections investigator for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) told local officials they bear "no fault" for the 20 ex-convicts who were improperly signed up to vote — even though DeSantis has publicly tried to pass the blame onto them.

"Pete Antonacci, who runs DeSantis’ elections investigation office, sent a letter on Aug. 18 to the state’s elections supervisors saying they did nothing wrong when individuals convicted of murder and sex offenses voted in the 2020 election cycle. Those defendants, who were ineligible to vote, were part of a press conference DeSantis used to highlight voter fraud," reported Matt Dixon. "'Through no fault of your own, records demonstrate that the convicted felons listed in the attached Exhibit A were registered to vote and voted in your county during the 2020 general election,' Antonacci wrote in the letter. Antonacci sent the letters to local supervisors, asking them to preserve voting records of the defendants as part of his office’s ongoing investigation."

"Though Antonacci had told local elections officials they did nothing wrong, the governor’s communications office pinned blame on them Friday evening in a statement and in a series of tweets defending the administration’s performance," noted the report. "'Supervisors should not encourage people to commit voter fraud, and you’ll have to check with the supervisors to verify the claims you’re referencing,' Taryn Fenske, the governor’s communications director, said in an email. 'If supervisors are telling convicted murderers they can vote, they should be held accountable.'"

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DeSantis held a press conference earlier this month announcing that 20 people were uncovered by his election integrity task force who were registered to vote despite being convicted of offenses like murder and sex offenses. Even under Amendment 4, the voter-approved initiative restoring ex-felon voting rights that was subsequently watered down by the legislature, voting rights restoration does not apply to people convicted of those offenses.

According to recent reports, these voters were told they were eligible when they signed up. One man in Miami-Dade County was reportedly arrested by a team of heavily-armed police with a helicopter, who wouldn't even allow him to dress before taking him to jail, according to his attorney.

Notably, DeSantis' own elections secretary is tasked with identifying newly registered voters with disqualifying felony convictions and passing that information along to local officials. DeSantis' administration has not commented on this.