JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A convicted felon is charged with two counts of election fraud voting and obtaining a false registration, according to an arrest report from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Marc Crump, 54, was arrested Thursday.
According to an arrest warrant, Crump was convicted in 1993 of manslaughter in Alachua County. He was added to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement registered sex offenders’ database after, the warrant shows, he was convicted in 2004 of lewd and lascivious molestation in Alachua County.
He now lives in Jacksonville, and according to the arrest report, he applied for his voting rights a couple of years ago. About a year after that, he applied for state assistance and received a voter registration card in the mail, so he assumed he was OK to vote, according to the report.
The report goes on to say he received a letter about two or three months later advising him his voting rights were not valid -- which was the first time he was aware he was not allowed to vote.
Crump spoke with News4JAX off-camera on Tuesday and said he was under the impression that his voting rights were restored through a constitutional amendment known as Amendment 4.
According to databases from the Florida Division of Elections, in December 2021, a Marc A. Crump, matching this Marc Crump’s address and date of birth, registered to vote on June 25, 2020.
He voted early in the August 2020 primary and in the November 2020 general election, stating voting records show. At the time of the general election, he was a registered Democrat.
Crump’s voter registration details are not present in state databases as of February 2022.
On Tuesday, News4JAX also spoke with Duval County Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan about convicted felons and their ability to vote.
“The requirements of Amendment 4 would be those who have completed all terms of their sentence, including parole and probation, and were not convicted of murder or sexual offenses are eligible to vote, and therefore, their rights have been restored,” Hogan said. “But they have to meet those conditions, and he did not meet those conditions.”
Hogan says Crump marked “no” on the voter registration question that asked if he had ever been convicted of a felony -- which was confirmed in the arrest warrant obtained by News4JAX. And Hogan said it’s up to the Florida Parole Commission to determine if a convicted felon’s rights have been restored.
Many felons failed to check their status with the Division of Corrections or Clerk of the Court as they thought Amendment 4 automatically restored their right to vote. However, they did know they had to re-register to vote. As a result many re-registered without having “completed” all the terms of their sentence.
Hogan said instances like this are extremely rare. In fact, he said this instance was the first time he can remember a convicted felon has voted in Duval County in the past six to seven years.
The warrant notes that Crump had also registered to vote in Duval County in September 2004 and cast a ballot in the 2008 general election, although the statute of limitations had expired on that matter.