A 58 year old Florida man, Robert Henry Rivernider Jr., who was sentenced to six months in jail for fraudulently casting a vote in the 2020 presidential election using his dead father’s ballot, is pursuing legal battles from behind bars.
Rivernider, who ran a group called “Villagers for Trump,” was found guilty by a jury on Dec. 5 of forgery and fraud in connection with casting a vote as reported by Law and Crime on Wednesday, January 10, 2024.
Despite his conviction, he has filed multiple lawsuits stemming from his prosecution. Rivernider accused the US government of killing his father with COVID-19 on Oct. 19, 2020.
He sued prosecutor Joseph O. Church on Jan. 2 for filing false information that caused him to raise bail money.
Rivernider seeks $2,500 in compensation, claiming he is suing the prosecutor in his private capacity for the statement that caused the bond amount to go up.
According to Rivernider, Church’s whereabouts were known because he had been interviewed twice on local TV, held political rallies in Sumter County, and had another rally scheduled that was advertised on his website and in local news sources.
In an “emergency complaint for declaratory judgment” filed on Dec. 15, Rivernider requested a ruling “to permit and allow [him] to open mail and all correspondents in the name, and all different variations, he has become known as, has used all his life, and is typically identified as.”
He describes his conviction as being based on “the crime of ‘probably’ signing an envelope that was mailed to the home [Rivernider] shared with his father.”
According to Law&Crime, the telltale ballot was allegedly postmarked after the older man’s death, but investigators determined that the signature more closely matched that of Rivernider.
The complaint stated that “based on comparison of signatures for both Jr. and Sr. there appear to be similarities between the signatures in the 2020 election that match Jr.’s signature, but not prior versions of Sr.’s signature.
On information and belief, it is alleged that Jr. signed the ballot of Sr. in the 2020 election.” Rivernider’s legal battles have continued even after his sentencing.
He has filed a motion for a new trial, claiming that the prosecution failed to prove that he committed the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
He has also filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him, arguing that the state’s election laws are unconstitutional.
Rivernider’s case is not the only one involving voter fraud in The Villages, a famously pro-Trump community in Central Florida. Three residents of The Villages were charged with voting multiple times in the 2020 election.
Trump himself has amplified disproved conspiracy theories that voter fraud swayed the election in favor of President Joe Biden, much to his own legal detriment.
The issue of voter fraud has been a contentious one in recent years, with Republicans claiming that it is a widespread problem that needs to be addressed through measures such as voter ID laws.
Democrats, on the other hand, argue that voter fraud is rare and that such laws are designed to suppress the votes of minority and low-income voters who are less likely to have the required identification.
