TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Miami Judge on Friday tossed out a criminal case against one of 19 people accused by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ election fraud force of voting illegally in the 2020 election.
In the first legal challenge to DeSantis’ arrests, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch rejected the idea that the Office of Statewide Prosecutor could charge Robert Lee Wood, 56, with registering to vote and casting a ballot in the general election.
Wood was convicted of second-degree murder in 1991, making him ineligible to vote.
State officials could still appeal the decision. Spokespeople for the Florida Secretary of State, which oversees elections, and the state Attorney General did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“I’m pleased, but not surprised,” said Wood’s attorney, Larry Davis.
Davis argued that Statewide Prosecutor Nicholas Cox, who reports to Attorney General Ashley Moody, did not have jurisdiction to bring charges against Wood.
The statewide prosecutor is restricted by law to prosecuting crimes, including voting, involving two or more judicial circuits. Those crimes are usually “complex, often large scale, organized criminal activity,” according to its website.
In the case of Wood and at least 18 other people DeSantis has accused of voting illegally in 2020, the statewide prosecutor said they committed crimes in multiple jurisdictions when they first registered to vote and then cast a ballot, each third-degree felonies carrying up to five years in prison.
When Wood signed up to vote, his registration form went to the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections, who then forwarded that form to the Secretary of State’s office in Leon County to verify his eligibility — making it two jurisdictions, according to the statewide prosecutor.
The Secretary of State’s office, which reports to DeSantis, verified Wood’s eligibility through a quick search, and he was sent a voter ID card.
When Wood voted on Nov. 3, 2020, he did so in Miami-Dade, but his vote was certified in Leon County.
Wood’s attorney argued in court filings that the alleged criminal acts occurred in a single county — Miami-Dade — and Wood took no part in transferring the application somewhere else.
Friday’s hearing was the first legal challenge to the arrests of up to 20 people by DeSantis’ new Office of Election Crimes and Security, created by the Legislature this year to stamp out voter fraud.
The arrests, announced by DeSantis in August, have been blasted by voting rights groups, who have noted that all of the people arrested were issued a voter ID card, indicating they were eligible to vote.
Wood and the others all registered to vote following the 2018 passage of Amendment 4, which changed the state constitution to allow nearly all people with felony records to vote if they satisfied “all terms” of their sentence.
The amendment did not restore the right to vote to those convicted of murder and sex offenses, however.
The months and years after its passage was one of the most confusing periods for voter eligibility in the state’s history. In 2019, state lawmakers passed a law clarifying which crimes were considered murders and sex offenses, and they determined that “all terms” included the full payment of any outstanding restitution to victims, court fines or fees.
However, the Secretary of State is responsible for screening the voter rolls for ineligible voters, such as Wood.
After Amendment 4 passed, the Secretary of State’s office admitted it did not have enough resources to quickly verify whether a person had a murder or sex offense on their record or if they still owed restitution to victims.
At least four of the people arrested remained on the rolls until this year, even though they registered between 2018 and 2020.
Hirsch has drawn the ire of Republican officials in Tallahassee in the past, but his decision does not apply to the 18 other people accused of voter fraud.
Davis said he believes his decision will have influence in the other cases.
Regardless, statewide prosecutors still have a difficult task seeing each of the 18 other cases through to conviction.
State law says that a voter has to “willfully” commit the crime — a hurdle that has forced some prosecutors not to charge ineligible voters.
In Lake County this year, for example, prosecutors declined to bring charges against six convicted sex offenders who voted in 2020.
“In all of the instances where sex offenders voted, each appear to have been encouraged to vote by various mailings and misinformation,” prosecutor Jonathan Olson wrote in a statement. “Each were given voter registration cards which would lead one to believe they could legally vote in the election.
“The evidence fails to show willful actions on a part of these individuals.”
