Letter to the Hon. Merrick Garland, Attorney General of the US Department of Justice, Rep. Wilson, Florida Delegation Pen Letter to Department of Justice

Letter

January 13, 2022
The Honorable Merrick Garland
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20530
Dear Attorney General Garland:
First of all, we want to thank you for your recent address to the nation regarding accountability and voter
protection. Your remarks could not have been timelier in light of recent unprecedented efforts to deny
eligible voters access to the ballot box. We are sending this letter to request that the Department of
Justice help protect the security of our electoral process in our home state of Florida. Recent reports are
disturbing, and we believe these reports demonstrate a clear and convincing pattern of relentless
attempts at voter suppression. In separate but concerning cases, multiple individuals were charged with
falsifying voter registration claims and illegally casting ballots in the 2020 federal election.
Unfortunately, Florida has seen a disturbing rise in partisan efforts at voter suppression. Proposed
legislation would further criminalize standard "get out the vote" practices, making it a criminal act to,
for example, notify a homebound voter of his or her option to request a mail-in ballot.1
In addition, there
is a shameful attempt to reduce the number of drop boxes, particularly in certain precincts, and finally,
the imposition of new deadlines on election supervisors to "clean voting rolls," an all too familiar
strategy to purge voters of color throughout the country. Typically, under the Section 5 of the Voting
Rights Act, these proposals would be subject to preclearance.2 But following the Supreme Court's
decision in Shelby County v. Holder, partisan actors in Florida have been unleashed to push legislation
that restricts voting rights for political gain.
And while voter suppression efforts are ongoing, we are also extremely concerned that investigations
into voting integrity are being politicized.
1 Wendy Rhodes, DeSantis says he wants to create a state office to investigate and prosecute election crimes, HERALDTRIBUNE, November 3, 2021, https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/politics/state/2021/11/03/desantis-slams-big-techand-vaccine-mask-mandates-west-palm-rally/6268452001/.
2 About Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, US Department of Justice, https://www.justice.gov/crt/about-section-5-votingrights-act.
In recent months, four individuals have been arrested in the Villages, a planned community in North
Central Florida, for voter fraud.
3 These individuals have been charged with voting multiple times,
usually in Florida, but also in other states where they hold residency.
In early December, a woman from Clermont, Florida pleaded "no contest" to 10 counts of submitting
false voter registration information ahead of the 2020 presidential primary election.4 The woman was
arrested after the Lake County Supervisor of Elections discovered 119 voter registration applications
that appeared to be fraudulent. Another woman in South Florida recently discovered that her party
affiliation was changed, from Democratic to Republican, without her consent.5 And finally, two men
were recently arrested in Jacksonville, Florida, on charges of criminal use of personal identification
information, after at least 60 voter registration applications were filed under the names of people who
did not give authorization or were deceased.6
Let's be clear: the crimes described above are examples of the system working because these individuals
were caught and held accountable. These criminal acts were identified through the diligent work of local
election officials with strong records of efficient, transparent, and lawful election facilitation.
Unfortunately, state officials in Florida are instead working to politicize our elections, blur existing lines
of authority, and hamper the ability of local election officials to properly administer elections. Harmful
proposals to create new partisan bodies to oversee our voting process are exactly the kind of action that
demand oversight as we work to ensure that our voting process is unquestionably trustworthy. We
believe that there must be a complete and thorough investigation by the Department of Justice to identify
and stop any other patterns of voter suppression that threaten the integrity of our electoral process in the
state of Florida.
Our republic depends on the integrity of our electoral process and every American deserves to know
that, regardless of election outcomes, the process was free and fair. We look forward to your response.
Thank you,
Val Butler Demings Kathy Castor Charlie Crist
MEMBER OF CONGRESS MEMBER OF CONGRESS MEMBER OF CONGRESS
3 Mike DeForest, 4
th resident of the Villages arrested for allegedly casting multiple ballots, CLICKORANDO.COM, January 4,
2022, https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/01/05/4th-resident-of-the-villages-arrested-for-allegedly-castingmultiple-ballots/.
4 Mike DeForest, Clermont woman pleads no contest to submitting false voter records, CLICKORANDO.COM, December 8,
2021, https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/12/08/clermont-woman-pleads-no-contest-to-submitting-false-voterrecords/.
5 Glenna Milberg, Was a Little Havana 84-year-old lifelong Democrat duped into registering as a Republican?,
LOCAL10.COM, December 3, 2021, https://www.local10.com/news/politics/2021/12/03/was-a-little-havana-84-year-oldlifelong-democrat-duped-into-registering-as-a-republican/.
6 Dan Scanlon, Jacksonville men charged with falsifying voter registration forms, FLORIDA-TIMES UNION, November 24,
2021, https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/crime/2021/11/24/two-jacksonville-men-charged-falsifying-voterregistration-forms/8752645002/.

Theodore E. Deutch Lois Frankel Al Lawson
MEMBER OF CONGRESS MEMBER OF CONGRESS MEMBER OF CONGRESS

Stephanie Murphy Darren Soto Debbie Wasserman Schultz
MEMBER OF CONGRESS MEMBER OF CONGRESS MEMBER OF CONGRESS

Frederica S. Wilson
MEMBER OF CONGRESS