TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa man Tony Patterson was one of 20 people arrested in August under a controversial election fraud program launched by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. His voter fraud charges have been dropped, but the nationwide debate over the legitimacy of the arrests continues.
Those arrested had voted in 2020, the first major election since a Florida constitutional amendment allowed convicted felons to have voting rights automatically restored, except for those convicted of murder and felony sexual assault or those who still owe fines or restitution.
These felons, however, were able to successfully register to vote and were issued legitimate voter ID cards, which advocates argue gave them a false sense of eligibility.
Several of the people arrested, including Patterson, claim that they weren't aware they had done anything wrong by casting their ballots.
“Y’all said anybody with a felony could vote,” Patterson could be heard saying on a bodycam recording as he was being taken into custody. “What you mean, I couldn’t vote? I don’t know this. How I’m supposed to know I can’t vote, man? And why y’all doing this now?”
Court documents for a hearing for Patterson scheduled for Tuesday list the words "nolle prosequi" — a Latin term meaning that state attorneys do not wish to prosecute.
The reasoning behind the decision is not clear.
Patterson is still set to spend time in prison for failing to report he had a new car. Since Patterson is a registered sex offender, he is required to report that within 48 hours.
DeSantis has made election security a key focus during his time as governor. In the wake of former President Trump's false claims that his reelection was stolen, DeSantis pushed the state legislature to create the election police unit, despite research showing there are very few actual cases of voter fraud across the country.
Critics of the governor have called the voter fraud arrests of the 20 convicted felons a political move. Others said the arrests highlighted the need for a better voter verification system in Florida.
"The system's broken on the front end,” said Neil Volz of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition.
“If like in other states, we had immediate verification process, then none of this would have happened,” Volz told 10 Investigates. “Nobody would have been arrested, we wouldn't have had to spend all this money on law enforcement and the courts and seeing the pain of our fellow citizens in this process."
10 Tampa Bay investigative reporter Emerald Morrow contributed to this report.