Gov. Scott has suspended Eatonville's mayor following Monday's indictment on voter fraud charges.
Mayor Anthony Grant, James Randolph and Mia Antionette Nowells were indicted Monday for voter fraud and bribery allegations regarding the town's election in March 2015.
Scott issued the executive order Tuesday, saying it was "in the best interests of the residents of the Town of Eatonville, and the citizens of the State of Florida, that Grant be immediately suspended from the public office that he now holds."
Grant's opponent, former Mayor Bruce Mount, accused Grant of bribing voters and absentee ballot fraud. An initial lawsuit was thrown out last year on a technicality.
A grand jury in Orange County indicted the three. They are accused of working together to illegally influence absentee voters.
Grant surrendered to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement after seeing the warrant Monday night. Randolph and Nowells were already in custody.
Grant walked out of jail just before 5 a.m. Tuesday. He was smiling and didn't have any comment other than he was planning to "take a shower and play golf."
Eatonville Mayor Anthony Grant bonded out of the Orange County Jail just before 5 a.m. Tuesday, March 29, 2016.
"We knew the numbers didn't add up, but after speaking to people or people coming to us with information," Mount said. "That's why we launched the investigation, so we knew it was some potential voter fraud."
Mount said the absentee numbers for last year's election stood out in a town with a population of about 2,500 people.
On the day of the four-person mayoral election, Mount received 80 votes. Grant received 70 votes.
Among absentee voters, however, Mount received 69, and Grant tallied 196.
Mount claimed the high number of absentee votes was unprecedented and suspicious.
"We're the oldest African-American community in America," Mount said. "We need to be setting precedent. We need to do things above water. If you run for election, you win above water. OK, so be it. Then you go and do something else or run again. But taking advantage of people is just not the American way."
The State Attorney's Office would not comment if the crimes impacted the election's outcome.
"Our purpose here wasn't to say who should or shouldn't be the mayor of Eatonville," State Attorney Jeff Ashton said. "That is not up to us. Our purpose is simply to explore whether the law was violated, and if we think it was enough to present to the grand jury and have the grand jury make the allegation."
The indictment against Grant includes 25 counts, 22 of which are third-degree felonies.
"Corruption in politics does exist, and it exists in Central Florida," FDLE Special Agent Danny Banks said. "However, it's important that we continually strive to weed out those corrupt officials."
This is not the first time Grant has been accused of voter fraud. He faced similar allegations back in 1991, but he was cleared of any wrongdoing in that case.