Deltona City Manager Jane Shang under voter fraud investigation
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has launched an investigation into whether Deltona City Manager Jane Shang violated state law because she listed her home address as City Hall on her voter registration information.
The FDLE investigation is at the request of 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza. Larizza made the request Tuesday, one day after he received a letter from the Florida Department of State that indicated an anonymous citizen complaint against Shang "appears to have merit."
False voter registration and willfully voting when not qualified to do so would violate two state statutes. Violation of each statute is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, five years probation and a $5,000 fine.
Mayor Heidi Herzberg fully supports the matter being investigated.
"If something is there it needs to be acted upon," Herzberg said Tuesday.
News of the FDLE investigation led City Commissioner Anita Bradford to suggest Tuesday for the second time that Shang be suspended from her job pending the outcome of the investigation. She said she would make a motion for Shang's suspension at the next commission meeting Tuesday, Jan. 22.
"She has to be treated just like any other individual in Deltona," Bradford said. "She kept the City Hall address registered with the Department of Elections until she was caught, and it was literally a phone call to the (Volusia County) Supervisor of Elections to make that change."
Shang didn't respond to a request for comment from The News-Journal. She became Deltona's city manager in 2015, and apparently listed the address at City Hall — 2345 Providence Blvd. — as her home address when she registered to vote in Volusia County.
On Dec. 5, 2018, the anonymous complaint was made against Shang to the Department of State's Division of Elections. On Dec. 10, shortly after The News-Journal asked Shang about the complaint, she called the county Supervisor of Elections office and changed her address to her home in Deltona.
In a letter to Larizza sent Monday, Department of State Deputy General Counsel Ashley Davis wrote: "Division of Elections staff confirmed that Ms. Shang was previously registered at City Hall from 2015 to December 10, 2018, when she changed her address to a different, confidential and exempt address," Davis wrote. "Ms. Shang voted in the primary and general elections in the 2016 and 2018 cycles using the City Hall address."
False registration is a violation of Florida Statute 104.011 and unqualified electors willfully voting is a violation of statute 104.15, Davis said.
What's not clear is whether Shang voted in a race for which she wasn't qualified to vote, which Davis acknowledged in the letter.
City Hall is located in District 1 of Deltona. Shang's actual residence is in District 3.
At a Dec. 17 city commission meeting, Shang acknowledged using the City Hall address on her voter registration, but said it was a mistake that wasn't willful. Bradford also made a motion at that meeting for Shang to be suspended, but the commission voted 5-2 against the suspension.
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