MIAMI – Attorneys for a Miami man accused of voter fraud as part of a crackdown by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are asking a Miami-Dade judge to dismiss the charges against him, maintaining he did not knowingly vote illegally.
Ronald Lee Miller, 57, a convicted felon, was one of 20 people netted in the crackdown.
He has said he believed his rights had been restored and was even sent a voter registration card.
“I feel confident that everything is going to prevail for me,” he said Wednesday after appearing in Miami-Dade court. “Why did I receive the card if I wasn’t supposed to have the card and when I received the card I’m thinking my rights are restored and then I went and used the card?”
It’s similar to what the 19 others charged have said.
“It was said on the radio that felons could vote,” 63-year-old Terry Hubbard of Pompano Beach, also netted in the sting, said. “if I’d knew that (I couldn’t vote), I would never never went.”
Attorneys said Miller’s actions were solely in Miami-Dade County and nowhere else, so there’s no case of conspiracy.
In order for the statewide prosecutor to have jurisdiction, the crimes alleged must have occurred in at least two judicial circuits.
“One judge has already ruled that the motion to dismiss should be granted and we are confident this one will be too,” attorney Robert Barrar said.
Barrar is referring to the case of 56-year-old Robert Lee Wood of Opa-locka.
A judge dismissed charges against him last month on similar grounds.
State officials are appealing the ruling. He did not appear at an appeal hearing Wednesday.
A judge is set to rule on Miller’s case on Dec. 6.