Statewide prosecutors have dropped charges against one of the 20 people accused by Gov. Ron DeSantis of voting illegally in 2020.
In a court filing Monday, prosecutors wrote that they were dropping charges against Tampa resident Tony Patterson, 44, because of 鈥渋nformation received鈥� from the Hillsborough County elections supervisor and because he was already being sentenced to prison in a separate case.
The decision means state officials avoid potentially having a second voter fraud case thrown out by a judge in as many months. Patterson was one of 20 people accused by DeSantis in a high-profile news conference in August of voting illegally.
As someone convicted of a felony sexual offense, Patterson was not allowed to vote under state law, but state elections officials 鈥� who report to DeSantis 鈥� cleared him to receive a voter ID card and didn鈥檛 stop him from voting in the 2020 election. Monday鈥檚 court filing did not say what information prosecutors received from local election supervisors.
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