{"id":632211,"date":"2026-07-08T17:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=632211"},"modified":"2026-07-08T17:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:55:10","slug":"election-scandal-erupts-as-florida-officials-face-criminal-charges-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=632211","title":{"rendered":"Election scandal erupts as Florida officials face criminal charges"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Three elected officials in Florida are among those charged in connection with an alleged false voter guide scheme.<\/p>\n

It all started in 2024, when ABC News<\/a> reported that a \u201cvoter guide falsely purporting to show a slate of endorsements by the local Republican Party hit mailboxes in St. John\u2019s County,\u201d creating massive confusion at a critical time in the primary season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the card, and I\u2019m like, this is a real issue. I was in shock. I\u2019m dealing with one of probably the most flagrant frauds on voters \u2014 the day before early voting. It became an instant train wreck,\u201d St. John\u2019s County GOP Chair Denver Cook told the outlet at the time.<\/p>\n

Now, five people stand accused of being involved in the alleged scheme, including St. Johns County Commissioners Sarah Arnold and Christian Whitehurst, and St. Augustine Beach city commissioner and former mayor Dylan Rumrell, who are facing charges of conspiracy and participating in the production of the false guide.<\/p>\n

Charging documents accuse campaign manager Brianna Jordan of coming up with \u201ca scheme\u201d to sow chaos by sending out a fake voter guide with fake endorsements that looked nearly identical to the one the local Republican Party was mailing. At this point, a \u201csecret envelope stuffing\u201d allegedly took place at Jordan\u2019s office involving \u201cin excess of 10,000 fraudulent voter guides\u201d that were then mailed between Jackson and Orlando.<\/p>\n

More from First Coast News<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Ann-Marie Evans was running for the St. Johns County Commission District 1 seat at the time. She was formally endorsed by the St. Johns County GOP and her name was on the correct voter guide, her opponent, Christian Whitehurst, was on the fraudulent guide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cAbsolutely, I believe that is what shifted the election from a victory for me to a victory for my opponent,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Evans narrowly lost to Whitehurst in the primary election. She now hopes these charges will deter future election interference.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cI know sometimes the wheels of justice turn slowly. I am extremely happy that something is finally happening, that there\u2019s accountability for this bad behavior,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

State Representative Kim Kendall, who was also endorsed by the St. Johns County GOP in the proper guide, says that the group\u2019s charges come as no surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy only gut was this had to be a bigger group of people. That was my gut, that it wasn\u2019t just me and you sitting around the kitchen table stuffing all these fake voter guides. Somebody has to pay for it, somebody has to orchestrate it, and several people have to implement it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three elected officials in Florida are among those charged in connection with an alleged false voter guide scheme. It all started in 2024, when ABC News reported that a \u201cvoter guide falsely purporting to show a slate of endorsements by the local Republican Party hit mailboxes in St. John\u2019s County,\u201d creating massive confusion at a… Continue reading Election scandal erupts as Florida officials face criminal charges<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":632194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-632211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-empowerment","category-national-security","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=632211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/632194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=632211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=632211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=632211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}