By Jim Saunders ©2024 The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court could decide a legal dispute stemming from a high-profile move by Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials in 2022 to target alleged voter fraud by convicted felons.
Defense attorneys filed a notice Wednesday that is a first step in asking the Supreme Court to decide whether charges should proceed against Terry Hubbard, who was one of 20 convicted felons accused of registering and voting when ineligible.
Charges against the convicted felons were announced in August 2022, less than three months before a general election that included DeSantis winning another term. DeSantis and other Republican leaders in recent years have made a major issue of trying to stop what they say is voter fraud.
The dispute in the Hubbard case centers on whether the statewide prosecutor’s office had the authority to file charges against him. A Broward County circuit judge dismissed the case because he said the alleged wrongdoing occurred in one judicial circuit and that the statewide prosecutor only had jurisdiction in cases involving multiple circuits.
But a panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal in July overturned that ruling and said charges against Hubbard should move forward.
The appeals court last month declined a request for a rehearing, but it took a step known as certifying a “question of great public importance” to the Supreme Court. It said the question is whether the Florida Constitution and a state law “permit the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor to prosecute crimes relating to registering and/or voting in a statewide election.”
As is common, attorneys for Hubbard did not provide detailed arguments in the notice filed Wednesday.
The state has argued that the alleged voting crimes involved two judicial circuits. That is because Hubbard filled out voter-registration applications in Broward County and the information was transmitted to the Department of State in Leon County.
In its July decision, a majority of the appeals court panel agreed with the state. Broward County is in the 17th Judicial Circuit, while Leon County is in the 2nd Judicial Circuit.
“Hubbard submitted his voter application in Broward County, with knowledge that the application would be sent to the Department of State in Leon County for verification,” Judge Jeffrey Kuntz wrote in a decision joined by Judge Dorian Damoorgian. “He then voted in Broward County in an election that included candidates for state and federal offices. That vote was submitted to Leon County. Not only did these actions occur in both Broward and Leon County, but voter fraud impacts the public’s confidence in elections throughout the state.”
The majority also cited a 2023 change in state law that allowed the statewide prosecutor to handle such cases and said that change should apply retroactively to Hubbard’s prosecution.
But in a dissent, Judge Melanie May wrote that the statewide prosecutor’s office “seeks to extend its reach into the local discretion afforded the Office of the State Attorney for single judicial circuit crimes.”
“The OSP (Office of the Statewide Prosecutor) is not some Marvel superhero that can magically extend its long arm of the law into a single judicial circuit and steamroll over the local state attorney,” May wrote. “In short, this is a stretch the majority is willing to condone, but I am not.”
Florida voters in 2018 approved a constitutional amendment aimed at restoring the rights of convicted felons who have completed terms of their sentences.
The amendment did not apply to people with convictions for murder or sex offenses. The appeals court ruling said Hubbard was convicted in 1989 of a sex offense.
