Duval County elections supervisor investigates whether 22 sex offenders illegally voted

A Duval County investigation is under way into whether 22 sex offenders illegally voted in the 2020 election, expanding a prior probe that resulted in the rare arrest of a Jacksonville man on voter fraud charges.

The review by Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan is examining cases filed by Gainesville database researcher Mark Glaeser. He has lodged 100 complaints in 11 counties, including Duval, contending felony sex offenders violated state law by casting ballots in 2020.

The only arrest so far from those complaints occurred in April when Marc Anton Crump, 54, was charged with three counts of voter fraud punishable by up to five years in prison for each count. Crump told authorities he did not realize he was ineligible to vote, according to a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office arrest report.

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Hogan said if the current investigation of additional cases submitted this month by Glaeser shows voter fraud, he will turn the findings over to the State Attorney's Office.

“It will be the same exact process," he said.

Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring voter rights to residents with felony records after they serve their prison or jail time, complete parole or probation, and pay all fines, fees, costs and restitution in their felony sentence.

But the amendment excluded restoration of rights to those with felony convictions for murder or a sexual offense. Anyone with felony record for murder and sexual offenses still must go through the state's clemency process to regain the right to vote.

Glaeser said he narrowed his database research to sexual offenders because the passage of the constitutional amendment did not restore their rights. He then matched up those sexual offenders with the names of people registered to vote.

He said on a statewide basis, he found evidence of about 2,000 sexual offenders registered to vote in the 2020 election cycle, and about 500 sexual offenders cast ballots. He said the state has fallen short in vetting voter applications.

"Undoubtedly," he said. "Granted, most registered right before the election so there was not ample time. However, they are still in active voter status 18 months after the 2020 election."

He said adding up to 15 Department of State employees and 10 Florida Department of Law Enforcement employees "should be able to handle that (vetting) and more."

He said at the county level, election supervisors "never took a proactive look at their voter rolls."

The deputy director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, a group that advocates for access to the ballot box by all eligible voters, said rather than spending millions of dollars on assessing individual applications, the state should ramp up the process of creating a statewide database that residents can use to easily check their eligibility.

"The state has a responsibility to be able to tell people whether they’re eligible or not, and if it can’t, it makes it a very cloudy situation to determine whether somebody’s intent was genuine or not," Neil Volz said.

He said other states have such databases in place "and we would all benefit from a system like that here in Florida."

Taking voter application information at 'face value'

Hogan said that under state law, his role when he receives voter registration applications is to enter the information "at face value" into the voter records system and forward it to the secretary of state's office for the state to determine whether the applicant is truthful and qualified to vote.

He said he does not know what happened in the case of Crump regarding the state-level vetting.

Crump was able to get registered and he voted in the August 2020 primary and the November 2020 general election. He faces two counts of voter fraud for voting in those elections, plus a felony charge of false swearing stemming from his voter application form.

Hogan said if his office receives information from someone other than the secretary of state questioning a voter's eligibility, then state law gives him the authority to initiate a review as is happening with Glaeser's information.

Florida requires residents registering to vote to affirm they are not a convicted felon or if they are a convicted felon, that their voting rights have been restored.

In Crump's case, he checked the boxed that said he was not a convicted felon, according to a warrant issued for his arrest.

Crump has felony convictions in 1993 for manslaughter in Alachua County, in 2004 for molestation of a child 12 to 16 years old in Alachua County and in 2019 for failing to comply with sexual offender requirements in Duval County, according to the arrest warrant filed by a state attorney investigator.

The form requires applicant to swear that all the information on is correct and says that false swearing is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

"It says on the application form that if everything is not true, you can be charged with a felony, so that is a pre-warning," Hogan said.

Prosecution of voter fraud cases is rare. In Duval County, a jury returned not guilty verdicts in 2016 on all five voter fraud count charges filed against Zakee Furqan, 48, after he testified he thought he was eligible to vote.

Glaeser said he filed his cases in Duval, Gadsden, Leon, Alachua, Marion, Seminole, Jackson, Lake, Sumter, Liberty and Orange counties.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Duval County examines claims that sex offenders illegally voted