Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hit back at the claims that Donald Trump’s felony conviction in New York State would prevent him from voting.
After a Manhattan jury convicted Trump on March 30 on all 34 counts in the hush money trial, some cable news pundits and “legal experts” claimed that the felony convictions would make the former president ineligible to vote in the upcoming election.
Others suggested that Trump would likely be allowed to vote in November as long as he was not in prison.
In a May 31 post on X, Governor Desantis clarified that the former president had not lost the right to vote in Florida, explaining that voting rights in the state were not removed if “they haven’t yet been stripped in the convicting jurisdiction.”
DeSantis explained that because the New York prosecution was “absurd,” even if Trump’s voting rights were stripped in New York, the Clemency Board that the governor chairs would easily restore Trump’s right to vote in Florida.
DeSantis added that, despite claims to the contrary, Trump will be one of the millions of Florida voters who will “demonstrate” in November that the state is solidly Republican.
According to some legal experts, the Florida Clemency Board could restore Trump’s voting rights regardless of what New York State might do.
If Donald Trump is sentenced and jailed before the November election, he would be ineligible to vote in New York State, and therefore, would also be ineligible to vote in Florida.
However, the Florida Clemency Board, which is made up of the governor and three Florida Cabinet members, could still restore Trump’s voting rights in the state under these circumstances.
Clemency Board member Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, said in a post on X that the board should grant Trump clemency “immediately.”
Fellow board member Wilton Simpson, the state’s Agriculture Commissioner, described Trump’s conviction as a “disgrace” and “election interference,” but did not directly call for clemency.
