The criminal trial against former state Rep. Frank Artiles got underway on Monday in Miami.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison for violating state elections laws.
State prosecutors allege Artiles paid a friend to register as a no-party candidate for a state Senate seat in 2020. The friend shared a last name with a Democratic candidate on the ballot.
Prosecutors say the alleged ploy was meant to confuse voters and siphon votes in what鈥檚 become known as a 鈥済host candidate鈥� scheme.
Court proceedings have lasted more than three years before the start of jury selection on Monday.
Ghost candidate schemes have become a popular tool for election interference in Florida and beyond. Candidates with no intention of winning who have similar names to competitive candidates have appeared on multiple ballots throughout the state.
READ MORE: Two million Florida voters are being disenfranchised by write-in, ghost candidates
The case against Artiles is one of three state Senate races where independent candidates filed to run but did not campaign in 2020.
Artiles faces multiple charges related to the alleged scheme in which he paid a friend, Alexis "Alex" Rodriguez, to run as a no-party candidate in the 2020 Senate District 37 race against Democrat candidate Jos茅 Javier Rodr铆guez.
The purported goal of the scheme was to confuse voters based on the two candidates sharing the same last name.
Alex Rodriguez, who did no campaigning and did not even live in the state Senate district he was running for, received more than 6,000 votes.
Jos茅 Javier Rodr铆guez, the incumbent, ultimately lost to Republican Ileana Garcia by 34 votes after a manual recount. He's currently a top official in the Biden administration, working as Assistant Secretary for the Employment and Training Administration in the U.S. Labor Department.
Following an investigation by the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, Artiles and Alex Rodriguez were charged in March of 2021 with conspiracy to make or accept campaign contributions in excess of legal limits, accepting and making excess campaign contributions, false swearing in connection to an election and submitting false voter information.
Alex Rodriguez pleaded guilty in 2021 and agreed to testify against Artiles.
The alleged campaign scheme between the two men was one of that appeared in Senate races during the 2020 election in Florida, supported by dark money-funded campaign ads, according to an investigation by the Orlando Sentinel.
Rodriguez was sentenced to three years of probation and one year of house arrest for his involvement in the alleged election plot.
"I would like to publicly offer a sincere apology to the residents of Florida District Senate 37 including Sen. Jose Javier Rodr铆guez, the people of Miami-Dade County and the state of Florida, and anyone else who was affected by my actions," Alex Rodriguez said in court on Aug. 24, 2021, when he gave his plea.
Artiles' attorney, Frank Quintero, said during the August 2021 hearing that they have expert reports to prove that Alex Rodriguez lied during depositions and deleted an "uncommon quantity" of text messages from his cell phone after the charges were brought against the pair.
They intend to bring these reports up at Artiles' trial.
