DeSantis Orders Suspension of North Miami Mayor After His Arrest for Voter Fraud

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a fundraiser in a file photo. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended the mayor of North Miami Beach on June 5 after the civic leader was arrested for voter fraud.

The Republican governor ordered the suspension via Executive Order 23-118.

It is in the “best interests of the City of North Miami Beach residents and citizens of the State of Florida that Anthony F. DeFillipo II be immediately suspended from the public office which he now holds,” DeSantis asserts in the order.

DeFillipo, 51, was arrested on May 31. He faces three charges of voter fraud, a third-degree felony in the Sunshine State. If found guilty, DeFillipo could face up to five years in prison.

According to the arrest affidavit, the DeFillipo, a Democrat, voted three times in the 2022 elections—in August, October, and November. His voter registration was connected to a home he sold in 2021.

DeFillipo’s arrest follows an investigation into whether he was living outside of North Miami Beach in the neighboring town of Davie—not only a separate jurisdiction but also a different county.

North Miami Beach is part of Miami-Dade County. Davie is in Broward County.

Broward was one of only four Florida counties won by Democrat Charlie Crist, who unsuccessfully challenged DeSantis in the latest gubernatorial election.

Utilizing cell phone site records, the state attorney had probable cause to believe that the mayor was committing voter fraud, according to the warrant.

It includes evidence allegedly showing DeFillipo no longer lived at the address shown on his voter registration.

Florida requires residents to update their addresses with the state’s Department of Elections and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles within 30 days of moving.

Not First Official Removed

DeSantis’s intervention is simply the latest example of his hands-on approach to lower levels of government. He’s removed other elected officials in the state after their run-ins with the law.

He also has been deeply involved in the transformation of the long-established Reedy Creek Improvement District, the governing jurisdiction and special taxing district for the land of the Walt Disney World Resort.

Under DeSantis, it’s been renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

DeSantis hand-picked the Board of Supervisors to take over governance of the area that is nearly twice the size of Manhattan Island. The board was approved by the state Senate.

Florida governor and 2024 presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis speaks during his campaign kickoff event at Eternity Church in Clive, Iowa, on May 30, 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Before that, DeSantis suspended Tampa-based State Attorney Andrew Warren, for refusing to enforce abortion-related legislation passed by the Republican-controlled government in Tallahassee.

Warren, a Democrat, fought his ouster unsuccessfully.

But in those instances, DeSantis has been criticized by some, accused of acting like a “dictator” and violating the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Others have applauded DeSantis’s efforts to be focused on law and order.

That includes a coalition of 15 state attorneys general, who filed a lawsuit urging a federal appeals court “to affirm states’ authority” to do what DeSantis did.

They say they should be able to remove local prosecutors who, motivated by leftist ideology, refuse to enforce laws.

Under this latest executive order and suspension, DeFillipo is prohibited from performing any further public duties. He will not receive any pay or any allowance and is no longer entitled to any of the privileges granted to his position during the entirety of his suspension.

According to the executive order, the suspension will last “from today until a further executive order is issued or as otherwise provided by law.”