An Orange County woman who was arrested in a show of strength for Florida’s newly created elections police office pleaded not guilty to charges of voter fraud on Tuesday.
The state’s election investigations division was created by Republican leaders in Tallahassee in spite of the evidence that voter fraud is practically non-existent. In their first big “bust,” they arrested 20 ex-felons who fell victim to Republican legislators’ confusing constriction of rights granted by Florida voters in a statewide ballot initiative.
Though Florida residents overwhelmingly supported reinstating convicted felons’ voting rights after they had served their sentence, legislators built up ever more caveats and frameworks around rights restoration with the ultimate goal of making it so convicted felons continued to not vote.
All three Orange County residents who were caught in the arrests believed their rights were restored after they were released from prison. That number includes 52-year-old Michelle Stribling, who incorrectly marked that she was not a felon on her voter registration. Stribling — who served 11 years on a second-degree murder charge — claims she asked for assistance reading the form and was denied.
“I’m doing the right thing. I stay out of trouble. I do right by the law. I don’t get in trouble no more,” Stribling told WKMG. “…Now, all of a sudden, they say I can’t vote. That don’t make no sense.”