The Florida Supreme Court building. (Photo by Michael Moline/Florida Phoenix)
The Florida Supreme Court has agreed to consider the appeal of one of 20 people arrested as part of a voter fraud crackdown initiated by state authorities working for Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Terry Hubbard, a convicted felon, was arrested for registering and voting in 2020 even though he was ineligible to vote because of a sex offense from 1989. DeSantis held a press conference in August 2022 in which he touted voter fraud arrests that his newly created election crimes office had worked on.
A Broward County judge tossed the charges after concluding that the statewide prosecutor lacked authority to charge Hubbard at the time. The Fourth District Court of Appeal disagreed and ruled that a 2023 change pushed by DeSantis to expand the statewide prosecutor’s jurisdiction applied to the case.
The high court on Monday said it would accept jurisdiction in the case even though attorneys working for Attorney General Ashley Moody argued there was no reason to consider it and to let the appeals court ruling stand.
Florida voters in 2018 approved a constitutional amendment that restored voting rights for many felons, but it did not apply to those convicted of murder and sexual offenses. Beneficiaries also need to have satisfied all court-ordered fines, fees, and restitution.