Another case under Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s (R) faux election fraud program has been dismissed, marking three dismissals and four defunct cases overall.
63-year-old Terry Hubbbard was one of 20 people arrested back on Aug. 18 by DeSantis’s new Office of Election Crimes and Security, a political stunt veiled as a task force designed to whip up MAGA support ahead of his potential presidential run in 2024.
The office rounded up 20 formerly incarcerated Floridians who’d registered to vote in the 2020 election because they thought they were allowed to under a constitutional amendment that reinstated their voting rights back in 2018. But the amendment excludes people who’ve been convicted of murder or felony sex crimes – charges all 20 arrestees have faced.
The voters in question, however, weren’t aware of this boundary, nor were they prevented from registering or voting in the presidential race. In some cases, election administrators even helped them register.
But so far two of the cases have been dismissed on technicalities while one was settled. On Friday, a Broward County judge added another dismissal to the list on the grounds that the Office of Statewide Prosecution can only prosecute crimes that occurred in two or more counties.
The two other cases were dismissed for similar reasons: Miami resident Robert Lee Wood’s case, for example, was thrown out back in October because he both registered to vote and voted in Miami-Dade County.
The third case was settled after 56-year-old Romona Oliver accepted a plea deal to have her charges dropped and credit her for time served after she spent a few hours in a Hillsborough County jail when she was first arrested.
