A formerly incarcerated Florida man who was arrested for voter fraud under Gov. Ron DeSantis' police unit says he was told his rights were restored: 'I would have never tried'

"If I was told that I couldn't vote at that time or any other time, I would have never tried," said Nathaniel Singleton, who has a prior murder conviction.

• A Florida man was charged with voter fraud for voting in the 2020 election, per CBS Miami. 
• Nathaniel Singleton, who has a prior murder conviction, said he did not know he was ineligible to vote, per the outlet. 
• He was among a group of 20 individuals who were arrested last month. 

A 71-year-old man who was arrested last month for illegally voting in the 2020 presidential election said "it wasn't my intention," adding that he wasn't told it was prohibited. 

Speaking with CBS Miami on Friday, Nathaniel Singleton said he would have never cast his ballot if he knew that he was ineligible. 

"It wasn't my intention to vote illegally because I was told by the Dept. of Corrections in the pre-release program that once I completed my sentence, my rights would automatically be restored," he told the outlet.

Singleton was arrested in August in Broward County, Florida on voter fraud charges for voting via mail-in ballots for the 2020 elections, WTVJ reported.

Singleton was previously convicted of second-degree murder and spent 12 years behind bars, CBS Miami reported, as well as 12 years on probation. He obtained a voter card after signing up at the Supervisor of Elections Office in the county.

Florida passed a measure in 2018 that allowed felons to restore their right to vote. However, there is a process, including paying any fines owed to the state. 

Gov. DeSantis signed a bill this past April greenlighting a police unit to crack down on election crimes motivated largely by President Donald Trump's baseless claims about mass voter fraud during the 2020 election. 

Singleton was among the group of 20 individuals who were charged with voter fraud. As Insider reported, Gov. Ron DeSantis said they were prohibited from voting due to previous sexual assault or murder convictions. 

"They did not go through any process. They did not get their rights restored, and yet they went ahead and voted anyways. That is against the law and now they're going to pay the price for it," DeSantis said at a press conference in August. 

Singleton told CBS Miami that before he got arrested, he told the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that he was grappling with semi-homelessness and could not afford an attorney at this time. 

"I'm a convicted felon but like I said that's something that happened by choices that I made, but this is something, if I was told that I couldn't vote at that time or any other time, I would have never tried," he said, per the outlet.