Ann-Marie Evans won her Republican primary in Saint Johns County – until someone mailed tens of thousands of fake voter guides to her neighbors the day before early voting.
She then lost by 844 votes.
Now the consultant who assembled the fake guides is facing a felony charge for trying to destroy them once investigators came knocking.
The Scheme That Flipped a Primary
Denver Cook, chairman of the St. Johns County Republican Party, told Breitbart News Saturday that what investigators uncovered was no accident.
Campaign consultant Briana Jordan assembled counterfeit voter guides at a rented house in St. Augustine being used as campaign headquarters.
She copied the official St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee guide – same logo, reversed color scheme – and stripped out every legally required disclosure identifying who paid for it.
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Then she sent tens of thousands of mailers from Orlando and Jacksonville, using distant postmarks to hide where they came from.
Two sitting county commissioners, their families, and a former mayor were reportedly present during the assembly operation.
The result: sitting Commissioner Christian Whitehurst, whose name appeared on the fraudulent guide instead of the party's actual endorsed candidate, beat Evans by fewer than 900 votes.
She told First Coast News she believes the fake mailer is what cost her the race.
She's probably right.
She Tried to Burn the Evidence
Here's where this goes from political dirty trick to criminal conspiracy.
After investigators began closing in, Jordan allegedly reached out to shredding companies.
Prosecutors say she hid or destroyed voter guides while knowing a criminal investigation was already underway.
She's the only defendant facing a felony charge – and it's for trying to make the evidence disappear.
That's not a campaign misunderstanding.
Cook told Breitbart that filing formal complaints triggered the cover-up attempt directly: "This led to them trying to cover up their illegal activity."
He spent two years working with investigators before indictments were finally filed this month.
Now he's warning the five people already charged won't be the last.
"Should something further be uncovered, that further charges or further people could be indicted in the future," Cook told host Matthew Boyle.
Civil suits, he added, are likely coming too.
Florida Has Seen This Playbook Before
This isn't Florida's first election fraud rodeo.
In 2020, a politically connected operative paid a man with the same last name as an incumbent Democrat to run as a ghost candidate – never campaigning, just appearing on ballots to siphon votes.
It worked.
The ghost candidate pulled exactly enough votes to flip a Florida Senate seat by 32 votes.
Charges followed.
St. Johns County is a nastier version of the same disease: incumbents who lost their own party's endorsement printed a fake one and mailed it to the voters most likely to follow it.
Florida's legislature has had enough.
A 2026 election integrity bill – effective July 1, 2026 – now allows election code violations to be prosecuted as racketeering activity under Florida's RICO statute.
That's a significant step up from the misdemeanor charges the five defendants currently face.
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It also creates a five-year statute of limitations for felony election violations, closing the window these operatives previously had to run out the clock.
DeSantis Made Sure This Got Prosecuted
Two local circuits recused from the case.
DeSantis signed a confidential executive order in April reassigning it to a prosecutor from outside the circuit – the Gainesville-based 8th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's office, which accepted the case and filed charges.
Two sitting county commissioners and a city commissioner now face criminal charges.
Their families were allegedly in the room helping assemble the fake guides.
And Denver Cook spent two years making sure none of it disappeared.
If more indictments come – and Cook believes they will – Florida will have proven something the left never will: when Republicans cheat, Republicans prosecute them.
Sources:
- Mariane Angela, "Exclusive: GOP Chair Says More Indictments Possible in Florida Fake Voter Guide Case," Breitbart, July 11, 2026.
- A.G. Gancarski, "Fake voter guide that roiled St. Johns County GOP leads to criminal charges," Florida Politics, July 7, 2026.
- Staff Report, "2 sitting commissioners, former mayor accused in fake Republican voter guide scheme during 2024 St. Johns County primary," News4JAX, July 7, 2026.
- Staff Report, "Charging documents reveal 'secret envelope stuffing' operation behind fake St. Johns County voter guide," News4JAX, July 8, 2026.
- Staff Report, "New details emerge in alleged fake St. Johns County GOP voter guide scheme," Action News Jax, July 8, 2026.
- Staff Report, "2026 Bill Summaries – HB 991," Florida Senate, 2026.
