Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday signed the Florida SAVE Act in The Villages.
He signed the legislation at the Eisenhower Recreation Center, which is located in Sumter County.
“This legislation strengthens the security, transparency, and reliability of Florida’s election system. In Florida, we will always stand up for election integrity,” DeSantis said.
Sumter County has seen several cases of vote fraud in recent years:
• A number of Villagers were charged with casting more than one ballot in the 2020 election, but all escaped with light sentences, which consisted primarily of civics classes. Villagers who were arrested were Joan Marie Halstead, Jay Richard Ketcik, Charles Franklin Barnes and John Rider.
• Robert Rivernider of Continental Country Club in Wildwood was sentenced to jail time after mailing in his dead father’s ballot Rivernider, who served on the board of Villagers for Trump, has since been returned to federal prison.
• Stevie Taylor Elizabeth Baker of Wildwood pleaded no contest to a charge of voter fraud. She was placed on probation for one year and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.
• Anilkumar Patel of Wildwood was arrested in 2024 after illegally obtaining a voter registration in Sumter County. He later used the voter registration card when he went to apply for a driver’s license at the Sumter County Tax Collector’s Office. At the time, he was a non-citizen from India.
Here are some of the highlights of the Florida SAVE Act:
- Requires verification of U.S. citizenship using REAL ID data for new and updated voter registrations
- Establishes a clear process to identify and remove potentially ineligible noncitizens from voter rolls
- Allows individuals to provide documentation to confirm eligibility
- Adds explicit notice that submitting false voter registration information is a felony
- Enhances coordination between state and local agencies to identify potentially ineligible voters