An Ohio lawyer is hoping a judge acquits him after he admitted to illegally voting in two of the last general elections.
James Saunders, aged 56, has been charged with two felony counts of voter fraud.
Saunders, a Shaker Heights attorney, reportedly cast his vote in both Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and Broward County, Florida, during the same election cycles. Scott Roger Hurley, the assistant public defender assigned to his case, argued that he exercised his voting rights in both locations as he is a property owner and registered voter in both places, according to Cleveland.com.
The defendant opted to have Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge Andrew Santoli deliver a verdict in his case instead of a jury of his peers.
His lawyer asked Santoli to “come to a just result” that acknowledges that his client made a mistake and the client should not be held criminally liable.
Andrew Rogalski, an assistant county prosecutor, countered that argument, saying the defense that Saunders made a mistake might have worked if the Trump supporter had only voted in two different states once. But he did it twice.
“The fact that you do that in consecutive general elections I think takes ‘accident’ to the land of imaginary doubt and not reasonable doubt,” Rogalski said.
Saunders is an active Republican with a history of supporting the GOP financially.
Federal Elections Commission filings noted that Saunders made monthly donations to then-President Donald Trump’s reelection campaigns and conservative political groups during the years in question.
During the court proceedings, witnesses, including elections officials from Cuyahoga County and Broward County, Florida, as well as an Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations agent, provided testimony regarding Saunders’ voting activities.
The witnesses testified on Oct. 21, 2020, that Saunders cast an in-person vote at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. Around the same time, he also…
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