This country has such a convoluted legal structure that both the person reading this and the person writing this are both likely guilty of crimes they are completely unaware of.
The tax code alone is over 30,000 pages. …Ignorance of the law is not considered to be a legal defense, but the manner in which the law is written and the enumeration of laws is criminal in, and of, itself.
Ask yourself this, how can ignorance of the law not be considered a legal defense when the law is so complex and convoluted that you are almost required to have, and entitled to a legal technician to ferry you through its dark and labyrinthine tunnels?
How can both be true at the same time? How is it just to claim that ignorance of the law is not a defense, yet at the same time tacitly admit that matters of law are so complex that a legal doctor is needed to successfully plead your case?
It is ok to say that ignorance of the law is no excuse when the law is just, concise, and takes up one page, you know like the 10 Commandments—not entire libraries.
This brings us to the main crux of this story; recently, Ron DeSantis has ramped up efforts to target illegal voting and voter fraud in the 2020 election.
20 people have been arrested so far, and 2 of the arrests made headlines— 66-year-old Donna Brady, who is accused of voting in New Jersey and Florida, and 63-year-old Toye Anna La Rocca.
Though I cannot speak to their motivations or intentions, I have seen the police bodycam footage of some of the other individuals arrested in connection to DeSantis’ recent voter fraud operations.
Most of the people look confused, don’t seem like they had malicious intent, and, I am sorry to say, not politically savvy at all. …
The police seem almost sympathetic to them and know that these people are likely being arrested for misunderstandings rather than knowingly breaking the law.
To me, it seems like these people were preyed upon by organized forces—think leftist and liberal voter ‘organizations’, who tricked these unsuspecting people into illegally voting.
One of the accused told police “why did ya’ll let me vote if I wasn’t allowed to vote”, and this raises an important question: why are these systems not automated?
Why are there so many ineligible voters on the rolls and are they even aware that they can’t vote?
In Los Angeles alone there were an estimated 1.2 million ineligible voters on the rolls—that isn’t the fault of the citizenry; that is the fault of a broken system and lazy, or corrupt, election officials.
Here’s one encounter between an alleged fraudulent voter and the police:
Agents with the FDLE arrested Donna Prentes Brady, 66, of Ocala, on two counts of casting more than one ballot in any election, a third-degree felony. Brady shown on left, La Rocca on right.
See the press release here: https://t.co/S0mUnGn5mK pic.twitter.com/laCpPsCbQe— FDLE (@fdlepio) March 15, 2023
Douglas Soule provided more details on some of the alleged fraudulent voters, were these people truly aware that they weren’t supposed to vote?
The same gov that arrested her for voting had issued her voter registration card.
While I don’t have any info about her confusion beyond that line in the warrant, she wouldn’t be the first person over the last year to get arrested for voting while believing she could. (2/9)
— Douglas Soule (@DouglasSoule) March 16, 2023
@TB_Times got body cam footage of some of the arrests. What's displayed? Confusion.
One man, handcuffed, asked: “Voter fraud? Y’all said anybody with a felony could vote, man.” (4/9)https://t.co/Xzy8Mrx0tI
— Douglas Soule (@DouglasSoule) March 16, 2023
A quick background on Amendment 4: (6/9) pic.twitter.com/5aM2VvyEeu
— Douglas Soule (@DouglasSoule) March 16, 2023
Western Journal reports that the law is meant to target murders and sexual offenders; however, other outlets are reporting that some of those arrested for voter fraud in Florida had felony DUIs or lesser offenses:
A state Election Crime Unit has filed criminal charges against convicted felons barred from legally voting without undergoing a rights restoration process under his leadership.
DeSantis touted charges against 20 murder and sex crimes felons who allegedly voted illegally last year, pledging to enforce the state’s election laws.
“They are disqualified from voting because they’ve been convicted of either murder or sexual assault, and they do not have the right to vote,” the governor said of the arrestees.
“They did not get their rights restored and yet they went ahead and voted anyways,” he said. “That is against the law, and now they’re going to pay the price for it.”
It creates the bigger question: Who will be arrested next?
The 20 arrested in August were never allowed to vote under Amendment 4 because they had murder or sexual offenses. But could others — like those who voted despite having unpaid legal fees — also get in trouble? (8/9)
— Douglas Soule (@DouglasSoule) March 16, 2023
The Tampa Bay Times chronicled one of the arrests:
Oliver, who served 18 years in prison on a second-degree murder charge, registered to vote at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles on Feb. 14, 2020. Six months later, she updated her address and completed another registration form.
After brief eligibility checks by the Department of State — which reports to DeSantis and is responsible for cleaning the rolls of ineligible voters — she was given a voter ID card both times.
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