DeSantis’ voter fraud suspects can be charged after all, judges say

TALLAHASSEE — Two people whose charges of voter fraud were dismissed by South Florida judges could still face jail time after two appellate courts overturned the decisions on Wednesday.

Ronald Lee Miller, 59, and Terry Hubbard, 66, were two of the roughly 20 people targeted by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ election fraud office during a high-profile news conference in 2022.

Their arrests were the first by DeSantis’ newly created Office of Election Crimes and Security. But judges in Miami-Dade and Broward counties tossed the cases against Miller and Hubbard, ruling that the attorney general’s statewide prosecutors didn’t have jurisdiction to bring the charges.

The decisions prompted the Republican-led Legislature to change the state law clarifying that statewide prosecutors could handle the cases.

In Miller’s case Wednesday, two out of three judges ruled that he could be charged. In Hubbard’s case, two out of three judges ruled that the new law could be applied retroactively to bring charges against him.

Attorneys for Miller and Hubbard said they would consult with their clients about whether to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

“I don’t anticipate this is the end of it,” said attorney Craig Trocino, director of the Miami Law Innocence Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law, who is representing Hubbard pro bono.

The arrests were portrayed as DeSantis getting tough on voter fraud, a popular Republican bogeyman in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that the 2020 election was stolen. But the cases also highlighted embarrassing lapses in DeSantis’ Division of Elections and drew widespread condemnation by voting rights groups and former Republican state Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg.

All of the people arrested had prior convictions for murder or felony sex offenses, making them ineligible to vote. But all had been issued voter ID cards by DeSantis’ secretary of state, allowing them to cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election. Even after the arrests, two of the suspects remained on the rolls and at least one was issued another voter ID card.

Video of their arrests also showed the people were confused about why they were being placed in handcuffs, with some of the officers at the scene sounding almost apologetic.

Attorney Robert Barrar, who is representing Miller, questioned why DeSantis’ Division of Elections issued them voter ID cards in the first place.

“Obviously they just rubber-stamped them. Why are they employed?” Barrar said. “To me, this is a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars.”

Catch up on top stories before rush hour

Become a Times subscriber to get our afternoon newsletter, The Rundown

We’ll break down Tampa Bay’s biggest environment, politics, business, education and culture news every weekday.

Loading...

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

Under state law, voting while ineligible is a third-degree felony carrying sentence of up to five years in prison. But state law says that a voter has to “willfully” commit the crime, which has forced some prosecutors not to charge ineligible voters.

To pursue the charges against the suspects, DeSantis’ turned to the Office of Statewide Prosecutor under Attorney General Ashley Moody. The office is restricted to handling cases that affect more than one judicial circuit, and usually “complex, often large scale, organized criminal activity,” according to its website.

Statewide prosecutors argued that they could prosecute the voter cases because when someone registers to vote in one county, their application is eventually sent to Tallahassee, in Leon County, to be processed.

In Miller’s case, a third-party voter registration organization signed him up in Miami-Dade County, which sent the application to Broward County’s election supervisor, which was then sent to Tallahassee.

In 2022, Miami Circuit Judge Laura Anne Stuzin rejected prosecutors’ argument, ruling that Miller “never physically entered” Broward or Leon counties and “never mailed or electronically transferred anything.”

On Wednesday, an appeals court said what Miller did or didn’t do was irrelevant.

“It doesn’t matter that Miller may not have intended to set off a chain of related events in other jurisdictions in order to vote,” wrote Judge Alexander Bokor, who was appointed by DeSantis.

In both cases, one of the three judges disagreed with the majority. In Hubbard’s case, Wednesday’s ruling would give statewide prosecutors broad powers, wrote Judge Melanie May, who was appointed by former Gov. Jeb Bush in 2002.

The Office of Statewide Prosecutor, May wrote, “is not some Marvel superhero that can magically extend its long arm of the law into a single judicial circuit and steamroll over the local state attorney.”

Of the people originally targeted by DeSantis, eight either pleaded guilty or were founding guilty pending a trial and sentenced to probation. One case was dismissed, and the rest are either on appeal or their cases haven’t concluded.