Heading into the 2022 election, Ron DeSantis glommed onto the pervasive, MAGA-driven fears of election fraud by forming a new Office of Election Crimes and Security in Florida. The new investigative unit launched in April 2022, but since that time it’s run into major problems: Voter fraud is extremely rare, and so are people who want to go on wild goose chases looking for it.
According to a new report from The Intercept, DeSantis’ election fraud unit has struggled to fill open positions, and voting experts aren’t exactly surprised by that development:
People are reluctant to join the office because there’s a public sense that it’s unnecessary, said Cecile M. Scoon, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Florida. State attorneys and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement previously handled cases of alleged voter fraud, which remain exceedingly rare. “The way it was presented would make most reasonable and rational people hesitate to be a part of that,” Scoon said.
On top of being wildly unnecessary and redundant, the election fraud office has been routinely criticized for having racist aims, which has also created a lack of interesting in DeSantis’ little meatball project.
“This office was created in a partisan attempt to further unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud, a claim often used to attack ballot access of Black and brown voters,” a social justice director at Demos told The Intercept. “Qualified people — regardless of political affiliation — do not want to be affiliated with fringe conspiracies about our elections.”
Turns out people in Florida are crazy, but not “join a batsh*t election fraud unit” crazy. Who knew?
(Via The Intercept)