THE VILLAGES, Fla. (AP) — A person has been charged with forgery and fraud after authorities say he forged a poll in Florida for his deceased father within the 2020 election, although the suspect says the fees had been motivated by an area, inner GOP political rivalry between former President Donald Trump advocates and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis supporters.
Elections officers in Sumter County didn’t depend the poll as a result of it was postmarked 4 days after the daddy died in mid-October 2020, in accordance with a felony grievance introduced by William Eager, the Sumter County elections supervisor. An examination of the daddy’s poll confirmed the signature on it resembled that of his son’s and never any of the daddy’s earlier poll signatures, the grievance mentioned.
Robert Rivernider was arrested and charged final week with felony forgery of a public document and fraud, in accordance with court docket paperwork. He has since been launched from custody.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Rivernider mentioned he deliberate to plead not responsible. He blamed the fees on an area political rivalry between himself, an lively Trump supporter, and native officers supporting DeSantis, who is also a candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. He identified that expenses had been filed nearly three years after the election.
“There may be loads of politics that goes on right here in Sumter County they usually don’t like the truth that I don’t observe their system,” Rivernider mentioned.
An e-mail was despatched to Eager looking for remark.
Rivernider lives close to The Villages, an enormous retirement neighborhood the place no less than 4 residents have been arrested for the reason that 2020 election on voter fraud expenses.
Final 12 months, DeSantis and the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature created a legislation enforcement company to analyze election crimes, regardless of there being little proof of electoral malfeasance by voters within the Sunshine State. The unit’s first public actions had been the arrests of 20 people for illegally voting in 2020. DeSantis has mentioned the individuals weren’t eligible to vote underneath a 2018 constitutional modification that restores voting rights to some felons as a result of they’d been convicted of homicide or a felony sexual offense.
Rivernider was convicted a decade in the past in federal court docket in Connecticut of orchestrating a $20 million actual property flipping scheme and has nonetheless been paying restitution to dozens of victims. In Florida, felons should pay all fines, restitution and authorized charges earlier than they’ll regain their proper to vote.
