4th Florida Resident Caught Voting For Trump Multiple Times

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In 2018, Donald Trump spread yet another of his conspiracy theories about voter fraud, saying that “people get in line that have absolutely no right to vote and they go around in circles. Sometimes they go to their car, put on a different hat, put on a different shirt, come in and vote again.” There is no evidence that people are voting multiple times at the same location, nor is there evidence that any kind of voter fraud that would affect the outcome of any election has occurred. Nevertheless, Trump persisted in saying that Democrats were committing voter fraud.

As it turns out, many cases of voter fraud have been found by people voting to elect Trump. Four residents of The Villages, FL, in a county where Trump won by 36 points over Joe Biden, have been charged with voter fraud. The latest, 64-year-old Charles Franklin Barnes, was arrested and taken to the Sumter County Jail on Wednesday. He was reportedly released on a $2,000 bond.

According to The Daily Beast:

‘Three other residents of The Villages, all reportedly registered as Republicans, were arrested last year for allegedly casting ballots in both Florida and their home states. Soon after, Lake County officials said they’d handed another six potential cases of double voting over to prosecutors.’

Just like Trump’s other election claims, including allegations of counties reporting more votes than they had residents, that Democrats shipped in votes in food vans, that voting machines were rigged to register Trump votes as Biden votes, and that dead people voted, claims by Trump that enough voter fraud occurred in swing states (but not states that he won and in no instance in which a Republican won in any state) to shift a win from one candidate to another has been debunked. The same can be said for his statements about people voting twice at the same polling place; in fact, Trump supporters just go to different states to vote.

‘Though records show Barnes is not registered with a political party in Florida, he allegedly voted there in the 2020 presidential election, as well as in Connecticut, where he is registered to vote.’

Three other residents of The Villages, FL cast multiple votes for Trump and have been charged with fraud. Jay Ketcik, 63, Joan Halstead, 71, and John Rider, 61, all registered Republicans, have also been arrested.

The Daily Beast reported that:

‘Each of them have reportedly been charged with casting more than one ballot in the election—a crime that could land them in prison for as long as five years. Ketcik allegedly voted by mail in Florida while also casting an absentee ballot in Michigan; Halstead is accused of voting in-person in Florida and as an absentee in New York; and Rider allegedly voted in Florida and an unspecified out-of-state location.’