Some people in Florida have been arrested for voting. The facts have some in shock. 

Police body cam footage of the arrests of several Florida residents over allegations of voter fraud showed both residents and police confused and baffled over the allegations.

The arrests were sanctioned by the Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, as part of the first actions undertaken under the new office in his administration called the Office of Election Crimes and Security Fraud. The footage showed that the accused did not understand what they were being arrested for and that they were accused of violating state laws when they voted.

The footage, which the Tampa Police Department provided, was first reported by a local news outlet. It shows the moments when three out of twenty people were arrested for allegedly breaking Florida’s laws on voting rights for felons.

Romona Oliver, 55, Tony Patterson, 43, and Byron Smith, 65, are residents of Tampa, Florida, and are either convicted of sexual offenses or murder. Hillsborough County records also show that they participated in the voting process in 2020.

Governor DeSantis announced in August that the new election crimes police department had arrested 20 people who were previously convicted and had voted in the 2020 elections despite their full voting rights not being restored.

According to Governor DeSantis, Florida’s Amendment 4, an amendment about restoring voter rights to convicted felons, which passed by overwhelming votes throughout the state, did not apply to the targeted people because the amendment clearly stated that people convicted of murder and sexual offenses do not have the right to vote even after serving their sentences, unless the governor or the cabinet restores their voting rights.

In the footage, some officers were also seemingly confused by the arrests, as they could not explain the arrest, and only told some that they were being arrested for voter fraud.

In Tony Patterson’s arrest video, the arresting police officer tells him that there was an arrest warrant for him because he had voted. The registered sex offender asked the officers what he did wrong, and one officer responded that they did not know and were only case agents. Another officer tried to explain that he was not supposed to be voting because of his status as a sex offender.

Confused over why he was being arrested years after he committed the alleged voter crime, Patterson said that he thought the government had said anyone with a felony conviction could vote. In the police car, he continued to lament why the government let him vote if he wasn’t supposed to, to which the police officer said he did not know.

Romona Oliver, who had spent 18 years in jail on a second-degree murder charge, was just as confused as the rest when she was arrested. When she asked police officers why she was being arrested, they told her that they didn’t exactly understand the arrest warrant, but they had to arrest her.

According to Oliver’s lawyer, she registered to vote in 2020 and changed her address later that year, and the Florida Department of State issued a voter ID to her on both occasions.

All 20 people arrested for the alleged offense may be fined $5000 and face a five-year sentence if convicted of voter fraud.