Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday announced that the state is in the process of arresting 20 ex-felons — mostly in South Florida — for voter fraud tied to the 2020 election, the first round of what he promises will be a wave of voter fraud arrests, according to Politico.

“In 2020, Florida ran an efficient, transparent election that avoided the major problems we saw in other states. At the same time, the election was not perfect, which is why we continue our efforts to ensure the integrity of our elections,” said DeSantis. “Our new election crimes office has sprung into action to hold individuals accountable for voter fraud. Today’s actions send a clear signal to those who are thinking about ballot harvesting or fraudulently voting. If you commit an elections crime, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

“It’s not just going to be 20 arrests — this is the opening salvo of an office that was just set up on July 1,” he said while speaking at a courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. “This is the first step. There will be more that happen over the weeks and months [ahead]. And hopefully there’s not a lot of cases that need to be prosecuted for 2022.”

DeSantis claimed in his announcement that in 2020, “Florida ran one of the most secure & transparent elections in the US, but we have more work to do. That’s why I established an election crimes unit.”

The investigation was led by the DeSantis-championed Office of Election Crimes and Security, an office created during the 2022 legislative session to focus on election fraud investigations and prosecutions. The first round, announced during a press conference in Broward County, was focused on felons who illegally voted in 2020 by either not properly applying to have their voting rights restored or were ineligible because of the severity of their crimes, Politico reported.