A statewide voting rights group said Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration is trying to "intimidate Black and Brown voters and scare them off from voting after the Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security lodged charges of voter fraud against 20 people.
“Gov. DeSantis and his allies are publicizing these charges right before a major election for a reason," said Brad Ashwell, the state director of All Voting is Local Florida, on Friday.
"Actions like these can intimidate Black and Brown voters and scare them off from voting," Ashwell said in a statement. "Just as they did in 2022 ahead of the midterms, the DeSantis administration is creating a politicized spectacle, sowing needless doubt into the minds of millions of Floridians about whether they can vote and whether their vote truly counts."
READ MORE: DeSantis touts 20 voter fraud indictments
In announcing the latest arrests on Thursday, Attorney General James Uthmeier told reporters that more than 100 people had been arrested for voter fraud in Florida since the Office of Election Crimes was created to review alleged violations in 2022.
“This pathetic attempt by DeSantis and the state to cater to the Trump administration comes weeks before voting starts," Ashwell said. "This is political theater to influence and control the results of our elections."
The move by DeSantis to investigate allegations of voter fraud align with those of the Trump administration.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration reported that its whole-of-government effort to find and prosecute noncitizens illegally on state voter rolls resulted in about 1,600 voter fraud cases that have led to 160 arrests.
The numbers unveiled just six weeks before Election Day provide a rare status update on an initiative that has redirected federal resources and hundreds of employees to search for foul play in elections at the direction of President Donald Trump.
They fall far short of the hundreds of thousands of noncitizen voters that Trump and the Department of Homeland Security have previously suggested were on the rolls.
It also represents a tiny fraction of the country’s more than 211 million active registered voters, underscoring what former election officials and election law experts say is a proven fact: Voter fraud, including voting by noncitizens, is rare.
