Jacksonville sex offender pleads guilty to voter fraud in 2020 primary, general elections

A 54-year-old Jacksonville felon pleaded guilty Monday to one count each of voter fraud and false registration as part of a broader investigation into whether several other sex offenders illegally voted.

Marc Anton Crump must serve 10 months in jail as part of his plea agreement and when he will be officially sentenced in January. He had faced up to five years in prison for each count.

While felons in Florida can vote if they have paid off all fees and restitution, sex offenders and those convicted of homicide are prohibited from voting unless they are granted clemency.

In Alachua County, Crump has felony convictions in 1993 for manslaughter, a 2004 conviction for molestation of a child and in 2019 for failing to comply with sexual offender requirements in Duval County.

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Crump was arrested by the Jacksonville Sherriff's Office in April. According to an arrest report, Crump said he did not realize he was ineligible to vote.

Crump was able to register and voted in the August 2020 primary and November 2020 general election in Duval, according to previous reporting from the Times-Union.

“Election fraud undermines one of the fundamental tenets of our democracy," State Attorney Melissa Nelson said. "We will continue to hold accountable those who knowingly seek to manipulate our election process,”

Advocates for voting rights say there is confusion around who can now vote since Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring voter rights to residents with felony records.

Felons can only vote after they serve their prison or jail time, complete parole or probation and pay all fines and restitution. But the amendment excluded restoration of voting rights to those, like Crump, with a sexual offense. Anyone with a felony record for murder and sexual offenses still must go through the state's clemency process to regain the right to vote.

Rare court cases but a handful recently

Crump's arrest is part of a larger Duval County investigation into whether 22 sex offenders illegally voted in the 2020 election.

Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan started examining the cases filed by database researcher Mark Glaeser. The Gainesville man has lodged 100 complaints in 11 counties contending sex offenders violated state law by casting ballots in 2020.

The State Attorney’s Office said it was referred to Crump's case in March by the Duval elections office.

Hogan said he has not heard from law enforcement about any additional arrests in the investigation.

Arrests and convictions in voter fraud cases are somewhat rare, although a number of have been prosecuted in the last two months in Duval County.

On Oct. 27 a husband and wife pleaded guilty to criminal use of personal identification information after submitting thousands of constitutional amendment initiative petition forms in favor of a gambling proposal to the Duval County Supervisor of Elections Office, according to the State Attorney’s Office. The forms contained personal information, including signatures of the registered voters who supposedly signed them in summer 2021.

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Elections workers were unable to match many of the signatures with the voters’ files and law enforcement was contacted. Investigators examined the petitions and contacted voters, who said they didn’t recognize or sign them. That led them to Corri Aurthell Moore, 46, and Michelle Patrice Moore, 42.

Hogan told Action News Jax that he’s never seen this level of suspected fraud before with at least 1,100 petitions in question. He said his staff became suspicious when they received a stack of crisp petitions all filled out with similar ink and handwriting. Normally petitions appeared lightly weathered because canvassers are out with clipboards and such seeking signatures.

The couple had been hired by Umunna Legal Group in Jacksonville, according to warrants obtained by Action News Jax. The firm said it fired the Moores after a couple of months because the number of petitions they were submitting “seemed impossible.

The judge sentenced the husband to a year in jail and the wife to a year of community control, according to the State Attorney's Office.

Another pair arrested

In a separate case, two Jacksonville men were arrested last November following the discovery of at least 60 voter registration applications for people who were dead or didn’t authorize them, the State Attorney's Office said. Jordan Rayeshaun Daniels, 32, and Devin Deangelo King, 34, were charged with criminal use of personal identification information.

The investigation began in July 2020 after elections staff identified inconsistencies on voter registration applications submitted by a third party. Signatures didn’t match and personal information was incorrect, and each batch of applications had the initials of the two men, the State Attorney’s Office said. They had been hired to secure voter registration applications from people, the investigation showed.

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Both Hogan and the State Attorney's Office said the motive doesn't appear to be political but for financial gain. "This was a group working with what we call a third-party organization," Hogan said. "... We did not see anything political about it. It was, I think, people who were greedy. There's an incentive there to get as many as you can in.”

Investigators interviewed people whose names and information were used and discovered more than 20 victims who did not give authorization. Another 10 were actually dead, the State Attorney’s Office said.

Daniels pleaded guilty on Nov. 3 and was sentenced to 10 months in jail followed by two years of probation and 100 hours of community service, court records show. King pleaded guilty on Nov. 22 and was sentenced to a year in jail.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville felon sex offender pleads guilty to election fraud