SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio (WJW) – A local attorney is indicted for voter fraud, accused of casting a ballot twice in both the 2020 and 2022 elections.
Prosecutors say Shaker Heights Attorney James Saunders voted in Cuyahoga County and Broward County, Florida.
An indictment accuses the 56-year-old Saunders of two counts of election fraud, both fourth degree felonies.
According to the indictment, the charges were filed on April 19.
A prosecutor’s office spokesperson says that Saunders is accused of voting in person in Ohio and Florida in the 2020 general election.
The indictment also claims the attorney voted in person in Ohio in the 2022 general election and by mail in Broward County, Florida.
According to federal election commission documents, Saunders had made several small donations to Donald Trump’s campaigns and other Republican organizations.
In text exchanges with FOX 8, Saunders says someone from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office showed up at his house unannounced one afternoon and started asking him questions.
Saunders texted that he never heard anything more about it.
“This is coming out of the blue and rather upsetting,” he said in a text. “I assumed that his investigation had shown that whatever made me a suspect in the first place was not in fact the case.”
An official with the Broward State Attorney’s Office told FOX 8 that, in general, a person is charged with voting fraud in the location where they are accused of voting second.
The first vote would be generally considered legal, but if someone intentionally and knowingly votes a second time in the same election, the second vote would be the illegal one.
Saunders is scheduled to make his first court appearance on May 4.
Beyond what he texted us, Saunders said he was making no more public statements without speaking to an attorney.