Renzo Downey
The state Election Crime Unit has arrested a man who investigators say voted in Broward County but is living in the country illegally.
Alfred Samuels voted in two Broward Special Elections this year, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). He registered to vote there in March 2021 under the alias Alford Nelson using a counterfeit birth certificate from New York City, according to police.
Samuels has gone by at least seven different aliases, according to the Department of Corrections, and has previously served prison time in prison for 11 felonies, including cocaine possession, selling/purchasing drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, resisting arrest with violence and trafficking cocaine.
Samuels faces five years in prison and a $5,000 fine for two counts of voting as an unqualified elector.
The arrest comes as fallout continues to spin around the first arrests made this summer by the first-of-its-kind Election Crime Unit. This week, body camera footage from some of the prior 20 arrests showed suspects who were confused and officers who were sympathetic to their confusion. The suspects registered to vote, were granted voter ID cards and voted in 2020 despite being prohibited from voting because of prior convictions for murder or sexual offenses.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the initial arrests in a highly publicized address to the media in August. Soon after, his administration came under fire for using the new police force he had requested from lawmakers to target felons who appeared to be victims of administrative errors. During this year’s Legislative Session, Democrats criticized the force as a voter intimidation tool, claims they reignited after the arrests.
Samuels was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Broward County Jail. He was admitted into the United States in 1977 as a lawful permanent resident, but never applied for naturalization and overstayed his original entry documents, according to FDLE.
The case, which emerged with 18 days until Election Day, blends two of DeSantis’ major policy points, voter fraud and illegal immigration.
The election police unit also works with the Department of State as a joint effort of the Office of Election Crimes and Security. Secretary of State Cord Byrd oversees that office, which was led by Director Pete Antonacci until his sudden death last month.
“The Department will continue to work jointly with FDLE to investigate and hold accountable anyone who broke Florida’s elections laws,” Byrd said in a statement. “By holding these individuals accountable, we will make sure Florida’s elections remain secure and accurate.”
14 comments
PeterH
October 20, 2022 at 6:37 pm
$10 million dollars of taxpayer money allocated to catch a few dozen people that have no impact on the outcome of elections.
Doug
October 27, 2022 at 10:57 am
We don’t want illegal aliens voting in our elections This arrest will be one of many hopefully
Elliott Offen
October 20, 2022 at 7:24 pm
If they had any integrity they would be arresting the biggest election criminal in American history… Donald Trump… instead of nailing Jamaican Jesus Christ to the cross for the sins in the GOP. Remember even Ashley Moody fed into Trump’s election conspiracies.
Doug
October 27, 2022 at 11:02 am
81 million people weren’t foolish enough to vote for Joe Biden
Watch 2000 Mules and then you will understand what really happened in the 2020 elections
tom palmer
October 20, 2022 at 7:54 pm
Cannot argue against the arrestl just wish the same energy was devoted to ghost candidates and such. Wait! They’re Republicans. Nothing to see there.
Peggy
October 20, 2022 at 8:23 pm
“Election Police” has gotta be just about the most dystopian term I could imagine. What an absolute disaster DeSantis is.
Joe Corsin
October 20, 2022 at 8:28 pm
Why is Florida harboring the biggest election thief in American history at Mar-a-Lago? Because if you got money you can do anything…grab em by the pu**y.
!
October 20, 2022 at 8:27 pm
If you want Jamaicans or anyone else to vote in Florida elections then change the law to say Jamaicans or anyone else can vote in Florida elections. Otherwise, enforce the plain law plainly.
Impeach Biden
October 21, 2022 at 6:37 am
The People’s Republic of Broward County strikes again. This is the county that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz resides and rules in. This is the county where two, count them two Democrat Supervisors of Elections were removed for incompetence. The fools from New York and others flee those over taxed, over governed, high crime states yet continue to vote in their moronic BLUE ways when they come to Florida.
Phil Morton
October 21, 2022 at 7:48 am
Dude has been in the U.S. since 1977. As with most cases of “illegal aliens”, he overstayed his legal visa. Kind of like the former first lady.
Tom
October 21, 2022 at 8:05 am
Amazing how libtard soros Manchurians will justify illegality and corrupt election acts. Especially after telling us 2020 was pure.
The soros gang is here, Morton, Idiot Eliot, degenerate corsin, towel boy peter h, Peggy sue got, you collectively are libtard disgrace.
This matters, as DC and Cali are trying to allow non citizens to vote.
Thank God we have a Barney Fife police force.
Wah, Wah, Wah, you whiners.
PeterH
October 21, 2022 at 1:18 pm
Most illegal Florida voting was perpetrated by Republicans and caught by the Feds. Most of the illegal activity occurred at the Florida Republican stronghold “The Villages!”
More money wasted by the worst Governor in Florida’s history.
Tom
October 21, 2022 at 8:05 am
Amazing how libtard soros Manchurians will justify illegality and corrupt election acts. Especially after telling us 2020 was pure.
The soros gang is here, Morton, Idiot Eliot, degenerate corsin, towel boy peter h, Peggy sue got, you collectively are libtard disgrace.
This matters, as DC and Cali are trying to allow non citizens to vote.
Thank God we have a Barney Fife police force.
Wah, Wah, Wah, you whiners.
James D
October 22, 2022 at 3:51 am
Thank GOD for DeSantis and the new Election Crimes unit. May the criminal Brenda Snipes and her ilk move to Cuba or Venezuela where they’ll fit right in with commie regimes. Commiecrats are so used to stealing elections that of course they’re going to cry wah! wah! now that there are real enforcement and consequences for criminal activity involving voting.
Thank GOD for the GREAT Ron DeSantis. All the DeSantis-Haters can move to New York and Illinois to the type of high-tax lawless criminal states they seem to prefer. People who prefer freedom and law and order have voted with their feet and they are moving to Florida en masse. Florida is now bright red, no longer purple, and the commies hate it.
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