Writer, Advocate, and Former Prisoner Emmett Tatter Targeted for “Voter Fraud” Under Ron DeSantis Regime in Florida

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(Emmett Tatter is a writer who spent nearly 10 years in Florida prisons. He has recently finished a book, lectured at Flagler College, and started a Substack, which I recommend. Interested in learning more about Florida prisons, I reached out to him for an interview in late March. I asked him about his life story, his work, and his experiences in the prisons.

We begin by discussing his childhood and early adult life up until he went to prison. However, afterward, he offhandedly mentions to me while we are scheduling the next interview that he “just handled the voting thing, so now there’s less pressure on me.”

“The voting thing?” I ask.

“Yes,” he answers. “It’s a horrible mess. Not sure if you’re aware that DeSantis went after people that he deemed committed voting fraud.”

“You were accused of voter fraud?” I ask.

“Yes,” Emmett explains. “I had to plead guilty to it… That is a story all in itself.”

This first piece will focus on the recent voter fraud debacle, and the rest of this series will focus on Emmett’s life story, his work, and the Florida prison system.)

I had a mental break post-release from prison after about a year and a half. I actually thought I was going to go to the hospital, but the police brought me to the jail, and I was still in the middle of a crisis moment, and I ended up fighting a bunch of officers and then they broke my face, tased me nine times. I had orbital fractures, went to the hospital for that…

Recently, when I went in for this voting crap, those same officers saw me and they were very apologetic. They were like, “We’re so sorry. We thought you were on meth. We thought you were on K-2, or just being an asshole, and we didn’t handle it right.” It was pretty cool hearing the officers who I had this confrontation with, even they felt bad. They’re like, “That’s so fucked up. You’re in here on this charge. We’ve never even seen it. We thought it was bullshit.”

The same officers that I got into it with, they were really nice this time. And it just seemed like they grew up too, as people, so there’s that story too.

So, what happened with the voting fraud thing?

I’ve kind of got to go back a little bit, to the mental health break, because it plays a huge part in this story. After about a year and a half, like I said, I had a straight mental break, and I got into a fight with these officers. At the jail, I got charged with — I think it was — multiple counts of battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting and all this stuff, and I just did 10 years. So, there was a question of whether they were going to PRR me [Prison Release Reoffender].

It’s a sentencing thing. If you catch certain charges fresh out of prison… you qualify to be sentenced as PRR, which is, whatever the charge was, they max you on it and then they double it. So, if you have a third-degree felony, which is punishable by five years, then they max that and then double, and so forth if it’s a first or second degree, 15 year felony and so forth.

So, I catch these charges, and that’s where my fight began. When I bonded out on that, I chose to get help. I wanted it. I knew my life mattered. I did not like where my life was. So, immediately, I went to counseling. I started going to counseling at Epic Center here in St. Augustine, Florida, went once a week for two years over there, sometimes twice a week. And I was committed, and I was also with a doctor, and he was helping me.

So, during this time, I was fighting these charges and I was still getting my life together, and I was still completing my book, and I had lot going on, working, and just trying to be a citizen. I really wanted to just be a citizen.

And in 2019 — I’m pretty sure it was, or maybe it was the end of 2018 — I did a talk with a guy named Garry Farris, and it was at the Democratic Women’s Club. And I don’t have a political party or anything, but I wanted to share my story about prison. So, it was one of the first talks I did after coming home from prison.

And while I was there, they had a paper for me to sign or something, about my rights being restored from being a felon, and everyone was clapping. It was like a big thing. I voted before prison one time, for Obama back then, and I did that because my girlfriend at the time, her parents wanted me to, and I was just trying to — you heard that story last time.

So, anyways, they sign me up. I’m a registered voter. I have my card. I’ve got everything. I’m like, “Okay.”

And then in 2021, while I was facing these battery charges and wasn’t sure how that outcome was going to go, I voted, because technically, my rights weren’t taken away then. I voted early, and it wasn’t like a presidential election. It was just a Florida thing, and I voted early. It made my parents happy. I felt like, because I had been in prison and after my mental break, I just felt so guilty. I just wanted to help my family, or at least be a part of something that they cared about. I felt like I owed them. And so I voted. And that was good.

I had a lawyer. My lawyer got me this amazing deal. It was a mitigated sentence. They gave me five years probation, six months house arrest, for a battery on LEO and one of the resisting charges, or something like that. I know it was two charges…

So, I take these charges. And maybe that is the very beginning of 2022. I can’t remember how long I was fighting those charges, but it was almost a year until it got resolved.

So, I’m on probation. I’m doing my house arrest. All that’s good and then there’s another voting thing coming here in St. Augustine, and I get into a big discussion with my parents, who have their friends over, and everyone is talking, and they’re just saying how important voting is.

And I’m like, “Yes, it is important,” but I just felt like I don’t want to vote, because I felt like everything is corrupt. I was like, “If the DOC is corrupt, it goes above that and above that.” And it’s like, “How you do know who is who?” And then, “Even if someone gets into office, nine times out of 10, I mean, the temptation is right there.” And then, “To try passing this law, you might have to work with these people or those people in order to get that done. And then you get trapped.”

And I was just trying to defend myself in that situation, and my fiancee, who is now my fiancee — she was my girlfriend then — she was with me. We were kind of against it.

And then basically I said, “You know,” the same thing, I just wanted to… This was important to my family and to people. And just being a citizen, in general, is something I do want to be, and I just felt like I kind of owed a vote or something, or at least owed my parents, or people that have been looking after me, especially after my mental break.

I signed power of attorney over to my parents. I sold my car. I moved........

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