Maybe the GOP should be looking at a massive Florida retirement community for the Big Lie

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Several residents of a retirement community in Florida seem unable to fully understand this basic rule of voting: You only get one vote per election.

After casting two ballots each in the 2020 presidential election, residents of The Villages, a 55+ community in Sumter County, Florida, have pleaded guilty to third-degree felony charges. Charles F. Barnes, 64, and Jay Ketcik, 63, face charges that could carry up to five years behind bars, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

But don’t worry: Barnes and Ketcik won’t face any actual time. According to Click Orlando, the two entered into a pre-trial diversion program where they will be required to do community service and take a (obviously much-needed) civics class, among other conditions.

Here’s where things get strange. In December, Ketcik was arrested on voter fraud charges along with Joan Halstead, 71, and John Rider, 61, who also reside in The Villages, the Orlando Sentinel reports, and although Rider and Halstead have pleaded not guilty, both voted twice in the 2020 presidential election.

If you’re not familiar, The Villages is not just any retirement community—it is a massive place with over 75 different communities, home to over 100,000 residents spanning two counties, with its own census designation. It’s the fastest-growing area in the nation with 39% growth from 2012 to 2020, according to the U.S. Census.

According to Best Places, only 31.7% of the residents voted Democrat in the last presidential election, while 67.8% voted Republican. In fact, Sumter county residents have voted Republican in every presidential election since 2000.

And according to the Federal Election Commission, Dem Villages residents donated $793,113 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, while Republican Villages residents gave a total of $2,786,290 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns.

But it’s not just Florida Republicans who vote illegally.

In October, Donald “Kirk” Hartle made a claim that his wife, who had died in 2017, never got her mail-in ballot, but somehow her ballot was counted by Clark County, Nevada, officials.

The GOP went nuts, claiming fraud. Guess what happened then? Hartle, 55, was charged with two felony counts of voting more than once in the 2020 election and using another person’s name. He was fined $2,000 and sentenced to one year of probation.

In May, Bruce Bartman, 70, of Pennsylvania pleaded guilty to felony perjury and unlawful voting after he was busted for voting for Trump in the 2020 election using his dead mother’s name.

“I was isolated last year in lockdown,” Bartman claimed to the judge. “I listened to too much propaganda and made a stupid mistake.”

Bartman was sentenced to five years probation.

Last but not least, on Tuesday former Trump lackey Mark Meadows was removed from North Carolina’s voter rolls. Why? Because he voted via absentee ballot in North Carolina using the address of a mobile home he’s never even visited, much less lived in, while actually living in Virginia—where he also registered to vote.

Posted in Independent News