According to Florida voter records, it appears that President Donald Trump may have committed felony voter fraud. On September 27, the president filed for a voter registration in Florida and cited his address as 1600, Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. This is, as most Americans know, the address of the White House. While this is factually accurate for the president, it’s also not in Florida.
In Florida, it’s a felony to list an address on your voter registration that is out of state. During the period of time the registration was filed, Trump was in the process of changing his address to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Typically, resorts aren’t allowed to be listed as residences. However, in a highly-publicized process, Trump changed his official residence to Mar-a-Lago in September of 2019.
This is rather ironic, as President Trump has put intense focus on voter fraud during his time in office. He alleged that there was ample voter fraud in the 2016 election. He had no physical evidence to support these claims. His administration even founded a committee to investigate voter fraud, though they found very little evidence of any.
All 20 cases of legitimate voter fraud came from immigrants. In all of their cases, they were confused about their voter status and submitted ballots, even though they weren’t legally allowed to. Despite this being an honest mistake, the Department of Justice was quick to arrest them.
A federal judge scolded DOJ prosecutors in the case. They focused too much on simple mistakes, he said. Instead, the judge argued, they should have been focused on campaign mismanagement.
The filing was clearly an honest mistake on the part of the president. It’s unlikely that Donald Trump, the president of the country, was actually trying to commit voter fraud. It would have been just as easily for him to accidentally list the wrong address on an AC installation form.
However, as Trump’s own Department of Justice has shown, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Were the law applied evenly across the board, Trump could find himself spending up to four years behind bars in a Florida state penitentiary.
However, it’s unlikely that Florida will bring any charges against the president for his felony voter fraud. This episode has only highlighted how easy it is for people to make honest mistakes. Perhaps this instance will help the president to have a bit more compassion in future cases of accidental voter fraud. Or perhaps not.
