ORLANDO, Fla. – The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office arrested five people accused of illegally voting in the 2020 election.
Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his election police arrested 20 people across the state for the same crime. We have since learned most, if not all, of those people thought they were eligible to vote.
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It also appears to be the case with some of the Seminole County defendants.
The state did not find the defendants, a citizen data researcher did. News 6 tracked down one of the five people arrested.
Solomon Webb Jr admits he did not know the law, but questions why he was allowed to register to vote in the first place.
“I was surprised by it all,” Webb told News 6.
“I never meant to do anything illegal. I thought I was eligible,” Webb said.
In 1999, Webb was arrested for an attempted lewd and lascivious act — a third-degree felony. He pleaded no contest, was adjudicated guilty and sentenced to five years probation, according to court records. He was also required to register as a sex offender.
Around 2018 he said he “heard” felons’ rights had been restored.
“It was televised. The governor had said that felons had their rights back to vote,” Webb said.
In 2018, Florida voters passed Amendment 4, which automatically restores the right to vote for people with felony convictions after completing their sentences, except those convicted of murder or a felony sexual offense.
Webb says he wasn’t aware of that part, so he registered to vote in 2019.
“I went down gave them my ID, gave them all the information and they ran it and I’ve had no problem since then,” Webb said.
Webb recalls getting a voter information card in the mail.
“That was one of the things that led me to believe that everything was fine,” he said.
“You’re not going to get that card if you’re not eligible. So, if you get that card, you’ve got to be eligible,” Webb said.
We asked Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Chris Anderson why Webb was allowed to register to vote.
His office responded via email, “We did not receive a packet of information from the state saying otherwise.”
What prompted the investigation? Anderson tells News 6 he received “an email in November of ‘21 from a data researcher regarding individuals who may have illegally voted in the 2020 general election.”
In March of 2022, Anderson reported to State Attorney Phil Archer, that “five sex offenders voted in the 2020 election and requested a follow-up investigation into each one,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
Webb and four others were arrested in July.
“Things like this shouldn’t be done like that,” Webb said. “They could have sent a letter saying that you show up in court on this day. Why are you going to people’s homes, taking them out of their homes, arresting them in front of all the neighborhood, disgracing people like that?”