A 69-year-old Tallahassee woman is just one of dozens of Black Floridians to be arrested for voter fraud as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ election crimes task force continues their controversial investigations and crackdowns on instances of fraud in the state.
Marsha Ervin was sleeping soundly in her home on Sept. 29 when Tallahassee police knocked on her door after 2 a.m. She let them in, wondering what could be the reason for their visit, and they told her they had a warrant for her arrest.
What Ervin has in common with several other Floridians who face the same charge is that she’s a felon who was able to register to vote after her release from prison.
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She was sent to prison in 2016 after being found guilty of aggravated neglect of an elderly person and released in 2018. Upon her release, officials at the prison never issued her any information on whether or not she could vote. However, she went on to successfully register to vote in 2020.
Although court records show Ervin is still on probation and can’t vote until November 2023, the government issued her a voter registration card in 2020, and she voted in the 2020 general election and the 2022 primary election.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement began looking into Ervin’s voting record after investigators received some information from the Office of Election Crimes and Security, a task force that DeSantis recently established to investigate voter fraud allegations.
Ervin’s attorney, Mutaqee Akbar, insisted that she thought she was able to vote after she was released in 2018 due to news reports announcing that the voting rights of hundreds of thousands of felons would be restored.
Amendment 4, which voters approved that year, allowed 1.4 million people with past felony convictions to vote. Only those convicted of murder or sex crimes were barred.
Months later, DeSantis signed a bill the Florida Legislature passed to withhold voter eligibility for…
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