Changed statewide prosecutor law prevents third case voter fraud case’s dismissal

The cases behind Ron DeSantis' voter fraud arrests is starting to fall apart.

Arguments over the state’s targeting of felons who voted will go on after a Circuit Court Judge denied a motion to dismiss an election fraud charge against a convicted sex offender.

Leo Grant Jr. of South Bay was among the 20 felons convicted of charges involving sex offenses or murder who were hauled in for voting illegally in the 2020 election. He was in the first batch of cases Gov. Ron DeSantis highlighted in a splashy debut of the state’s new election police created in 2022.

The accused had all been convicted of crimes that made them ineligible to get their voting rights restored, as called for in a 2018 constitutional amendment.

The arrests became controversial, however. Many of the felons hadn’t known of the exclusions and had their voting cards issued by state offices. There was no centralized way to check on voting eligibility, subsequent news stories found.

Some defense attorneys were able to get these cases thrown out of court, arguing that the Office of Statewide Prosecution did not have jurisdiction over these cases. The office’s authority was limited to crimes that involve multiple counties, but a change in the law allowed its involvement in election crimes.

Fixing that glitch was one of the reasons for convening a Special Session earlier this year. And the legislation (SB 4B) is the reason that Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Gillen of the 15th Judicial Circuit in West Palm Beach denied the motion to dismiss Grant’s case on Thursday, his lawyer Kevin Anderson said.

“Essentially the Legislature amended the statute to patch up the hole because things were getting away from them,” Anderson said. “So, with that amended statute, now, they were able to file the charge which comported it to the statute.”

So far, the change in the law has been invoked in two other cases in which the motions to dismiss were denied, said Chase Sizemore, Press Secretary for the Office of the Attorney General. The new law also played a role in a case that ended with a guilty plea. Prior to the law passing, another election fraud case ended with a guilty plea, he said.

Grant said his client in no way intended to break the law.

“He submitted his application directly to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections and they took everything from there — either transmitted it, mailed it, sent it by carrier pigeon — got it up to Leon County, which, in turn, granted him authorization and a voter registration card,” Anderson said, declining to say whether he intends to proceed to a jury trial in Grant’s case.

The state has appealed a handful of cases that were thrown out based on the statewide prosecutor authority question. Craig Trocino is defending a client with a case now in the Fourth District Court of Appeal.

The state is arguing that the statewide prosecutor does have the authority in the case like Terry Hubbard’s, which was dismissed by Broward County’s circuit court in December.

“No precedent has been set on the question,” Trocino said.