Florida County GOP Chair Convicted In Vote Siphoning Scheme

A Florida Republican county chairperson has been convicted of using a vote siphoning scheme to take votes away from a Democratic candidate.

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The Orlando Sentinel reported:

A jury of six people found Seminole County GOP Chairman Ben Paris guilty on Thursday of causing his cousin’s name to be falsely listed on independent “ghost” candidate Jestine Iannotti’s campaign contribution forms in 2020.

Paris was sentenced to 12 months of probation and 200 hours of community service for the misdemeanor and ordered to pay roughly $42,000 — the cost of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into the apparent vote-siphoning scheme.

The party chair used his cousin as a fake candidate, got her name on the ballot, and launched an advertising blitz promoting a fake progressive to take votes away from the Democratic candidate in a state Senate race.

Florida Republicans appear to have been engaging in a large amount of illegal election activity beyond the ghost candidate scheme. The state Republican Party was also changing the voter registration of Democratic voters without their consent.

Republicans have been engaging in a campaign of election fraud in the Sunshine State, but it is a certainty that Gov. Ron DeSantis won’t be turning his election police loose on where the election crimes are in Florida because they are in the Republican Party.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association