Stupid is on the right, with assistant public defender Scott Roger Hurley, left
DATELINE: CLEVELAND, Ohio — A Shaker Heights attorney accused of illegally voting in the last two general elections should be acquitted, in part, because he cast ballots in two states by accident, his attorney argued to a judge.
James Saunders, a 56-year-old former lawyer for the Internal Revenue Service, did not mean to commit a crime when he cast ballots in both Cuyahoga County and Broward County, Florida, counties where he owns property and has been registered to vote since before 2009, his lawyer said during closing arguments Wednesday. Scott Roger Hurley, an assistant public defender, asked Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Andrew Santoli to “come to a just result here that acknowledges that, yes, mistakes do happen, accidents do happen” and find Saunders not guilty of two felony counts of voter fraud.
Federal Elections Commission filings showed that Saunders had made monthly donations to then-President Donald Trump’s re-election campaigns and various other conservative political groups in the run-up to that election. Prior to the November 2022 election, Saunders donated to groups that supported GOP congressional candidates in an effort to capture a majority in the U.S. House and Senate.
