Canadian citizen in Florida charged with illegally voting in 7 U.S. elections

A Canadian citizen managed to register to vote and cast ballots in seven U.S. elections, Florida prosecutors charged Thursday. Giorgio Dominique Mucelli acknowledged to investigators that he voted despite it being against the law, according to authorities, but said he felt it was the “right thing to do.” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said officials flagged Mr. Mucelli as a noncitizen thanks to the federal SAVE database, which the Trump administration has been pushing states to use to scour their voter rolls for ineligible names. “Florida will not allow noncitizens to steal the vote of Americans at the ballot box,” Mr. Uthmeier said. “This individual knowingly registered and voted while ineligible, lied about it when confronted, and undermined the integrity of our elections.” According to the case against him, Mr. Mucelli, 66, filed his registration application in Brevard County in 2004, claiming to be a citizen. He then cast ballots in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2020, 2022, and 2024. Mr. Uthmeier said when he was first notified of the irregularity by election officials, he claimed he hadn’t voted. In a later interview, after being read his Miranda rights, he admitted both to the illegal voting and to lying about it, the attorney general said. “He knew he was not allowed to vote but he did it anyway,” Mr. Uthmeier said. Mr. Mucelli faces one count of voting by a noncitizen and one count of false affirmation. Both are felonies in Florida. He posted a $16,000 bond and was released. The attorney general hailed the use of the federal database, the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements. A federal judge last month ruled that the Trump administration was breaking the law by allowing that system to be used to verify voter eligibility. U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, a Biden appointee to the court in Washington, said SAVE has wrongly flagged some actual citizens for removal from voting lists. She said some information in SAVE, gleaned from Social Security, also “trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens.” Mr. Uthmeier called Judge Sooknanan an “activist judge” who “overstepped her authority.”