3 Republicans in Florida Accused of Voter Fraud

Texas Lt. Gov Dan Patrick might have to cough up another voter fraud bounty: Three residents of a retirement community in central Florida have been arrested for allegedly voting more than once in the 2020 election, Orlando Weekly reports. Jay Ketcik, Joan Halstead, and John Rider are each accused of casting an out-of-state absentee ballot as well as voting in Florida. All three suspects are residents of The Villages in Florida's Sumter County, but authorities say there's no sign that they knew each other. WKMG reports that all three are registered Republicans and there are pro-Donald Trump posts on Facebook pages believed to belong to Halstead and Ketcik.

According to court records, Ketcik, 63, and Halstead, 71, turned themselves in at the Sumter County Jail; Rider, 61, was arrested at the Royal Caribbean cruise terminal in Brevard County on Dec. 3. All three are charged with casting more than one ballot in an election, a felony with a maximum sentence of up to 5 years in prison. WKMG notes that arrests for alleged election fraud are very rare in the region: Records show there were no arrests for casting multiple ballots in Brevard, Lake, Marion, or Sumter counties between 2000 and 2020. (More Election 2020 stories.)